Year
1989
Abstract
Since the late 1970s, Sandia National Laboratories has been involved in developing ultrasonic sealing systems for international safeguards applications on reactor fuel assemblies. An outgrowth of this effort has been the Seal Pattern Reader (SPAR), a device which is capable of reading several types of ultrasonic seals, such as the Sandia Fuel Assembly Identification Device (FAID), the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited Random Coil (ARC) seal, the Sellafield, UK, Multielement Bottle (MEB) seal, and the JRC-Ispra VAK-III seal. When originally developed, the SPAR was based on state-of-the-art technology, a technology which today can be considered outdated. A new prototype version of t h e SPAR has recently been developed, specifically for the VAK-III seal, that is based upon a Personal Computer (PC). The system consists of a Data Acquisition Box (DAB) which interfaces the ultrasonic seal to a PC which, through menu-driven displays, provides an inspector with a user-friendly interface.