Savannah River Inline Radiation Monitor

Millions of gallons of high-level radioactive liquid waste will be processed at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS) to remove ⁹⁰Sr, ¹³⁷Cs, and transuranics (TRU) before sending the resultant liquor to a relatively low-cost Saltstone disposal facility. The separation process involves several steps and will be performed in batch mode. In order to meet the Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) for the Saltstone facility it is necessary to nondestructively monitor the concentrations of these radioisotopes in near-real-time on either a flowing side stream or on a transfer line between process steps. The design and demonstration of a neutron-counting system having a very low background and high counting efficiency and capable of operating in a high gamma radiation field was the objective of this project.

The arrangement of these components is shown in plan view in Figure 1 and in a cutaway view in Figure 2. The particular arrangement of the hardware was devised to allow deployment into a hot cell using an overhead gantry crane to lift and position the apparatus and to utilize two lightweight manipulators in the cell to effect the necessary connections. The sample vessel assembly is deployed, connected, and tested independently of the instrument, which is then lowered onto the sample vessel and later removed.

Project Contact: O.D. Mullen