Year
1999
Abstract
One important consideration for safe, long-term storage of plutonium oxides in welded 3013 containers is the moisture content of the packaged material. Excess moisture will undergo radiolysis over time leading to pressurization of the primary storage container and potential container failure. For long-term storage, the moisture content on plutonium oxide must be less than 0.5% by weight as specified by DOE Standard DOE-STD-3013-96. The only technique currently approved for verifying the moisture content of plutonium oxide is Loss-on-Ignition. This is a destructive analysis technique that is time consuming and subject to severe sampling errors in inhomogeneous materials. A prototype moisture monitor based on neutron moderation has been designed and built at Los Alamos. The neutron moisture content of packaged, plutonium oxide bearing materials destined for long-term storage. In this paper the result of the performance evaluation for prototype instrument will be presented. In addition the applicability and limitations of the neutron moisture monitor for measurement of moisture on plutonium oxide will be discussed.