Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have developed systems that can access and collect head space samples from inside a uranium hexafluoride cylinder and perform select analysis of those samples both in the laboratory and in the field. A sample of the uranium can be collected and returned to a laboratory for high precision isotopic analysis. The system then sequentially removes reactive gases such as uranium hexafluoride, hydrogen fluoride, oxygen, and fluorine. The purified head space gas can be analyzed for its noble gas content in the field, allowing the number of helium atoms to be determined. The number of helium atoms, combined with the total mass of uranium and the uranium isotopic ratios, can be used to assess the fill date of the cylinder. Results will be shown for a series of 1S cylinders of known age and isotopic content.
Year
2020
Abstract