BLUE COLLAR NDA SYSTEMS

One of the facilities at the Savannah River Plant includes eight high-technology microcomputer based nondestructive assay systems. These assay instruments were developed and fabricated for this facility by the N-l group at Los Alamos National Laboratories. Thirty two additional NDA systems of three types are also used in this facility. These instruments provide valuable service for accountability and material control and in addition for nuclear criticality safety and process control. While this equipment is assembled from more mundane commercially available or simple, locally constructed mechanical assemblies plus commercially available instrumentation, some mechanical and instrument arrangements are unique and similar systems have not been seen in many SNM handling facilities. A special procedure providing traceability of calibrations to national measurement standards is used for most of this equipment. This paper will concentrate on the mechanical and instrument arrangements of these blue collar systems, their calibration and how they have been useful in this process.