INSTALLATION AND OPERATION OF THE BLEND-DOWN MONITORING SYSTEM AT THE URAL ELECTROCHEMICAL INTEGRATED PLANT

Year
1999
Author(s)
Jose March-Leuba - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Jim Sumner - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Bob Vines - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Danny Powell - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Donald A. Close - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Calvin E. Moss - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Taner Uckan - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Edward Mastal - U.S. Department of Energy
W. S. Johnson - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Janie Benton - U.S. Department of Energy
P.L. Kerr - Los Alamos National Laboratory
Alexander Bystrov - Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy
Abstract
The governments of the United States and the Russian Federation signed a bilateral Agreement in February 1993 for the United States to purchase low-enriched uranium (LEU) derived from highly enriched uranium (HEU) removed from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons. The Agreement calls for the establishment of transparency measures that provide both parties with confidence that the nuclear nonproliferation objectives of the Agreement are being achieved. Under the Annexes negotiated the Transparency Review Committee one of the transparency measures is the installation of nonintrusive United States nondestructive assay instruments to independently and continuously monitor the 235U enrichment and mass flow rate at the blend point. The Blend-Down Monitoring System (BDMS) has met all licensing and safety requirements of the Russian Federation and has been installed on each HEU feed stock pipe, LEU blend stock pipe, and product-LEU process pipe of each blending tee at the Ural Electrochemical Integrated Plant (UEIP) in Novouralsk. The BDMS was installed at the UEIP during January 1999. The instrumentation is meeting the needs of the HEU Transparency Implementation Program.