Year
2010
Abstract
The Distributed Source-Term Analysis (DSTA) technique has been used in a variety of safeguards applications to determine location and quantity of material contained within large sample volumes. The DSTA method can provide user with knowledge of the location of neutron-producing materials and magnitude of the localized activity. A facility operator can use this information to identify the physical location of holdup during cleanout operations. In this paper, we present the concept of using the DSTA method as a Glove Box Cleanout Assistance Tool (BCAT) that is used by operator during cleanout to increase recovered material, to decrease unmeasured inventory, and to perform the cleanout activity effectively in order to reduce operator radiation-exposure. As a demonstration of use of the BCAT to identify holdup locations in a conversion room at PCDF, we have selected 50 representative measurement positions distributed individually throughout area of interest. In order to validate the effect of tool, we performed cleanout activities to recover the in-process material in the room. The BCAT results show not only the calculated neutron activity in gloveboxes known to contain holdup material, but also the presence of material in gloveboxes where no material is normally believed to exist. The results are extremely promising and, with some refining of the model, we anticipate that the BCAT will reach its full potential.