Demonstration of an Automated Electromanometer for Measurement of Solution in Accountability Vessels in the Tokai Reprocessing Plant (Part II)

This report describes the results of an operational field test of the automated electromanometer system installed at the input accountability vessel (251V10) and the plutonium product accountability vessel (266V23) in the Tokai Reprocessing Plant. This system has been in use since September 1979 when it was installed in the PNC plant by BNL as part of Task-E, one of the thirteen tasks, in the Tokai Advanced Safeguards Technology Exercise (TASTEX) program. The first report on the progress of this task was- published by S. Suda, et al., in the Proceedings of the INMM 22nd Annual Meeting. In this paper, further results of measurement and data analysis are shown. Also, the reliability and applicability of this instrument for accountability, safeguards, and process control purposes are investigated using the data of 106 batches for 251V10 and 40 batches for 266V23 obtained during two campaigns in 1981. The results are as follows: (a) There were small but significant differences relative to the plant's measurements for both vessels of 251V10 and 266V23, however, the difference for 251V10 was slightly decreased in the latest vessel calibration. (b) Initially, there were many spurious signals originating with the raw data caused by a software error in the system. However, almost normal conditions were obtained after corrections of the program were made. In conclusion, it was demonstrated that this system could be used for the purposes of accountancy and process control. Approval for the use of these data for safeguards inspection purposes at a reprocessing plant is intended in the near future.