Efficient Counting of Storage Drums Using 3-D Laser Scanning Technology

3D Laser scanning technology has been increasingly applied in recent years for different types of safeguards applications; such as the verification of the integrity of containers, design information verification and the identification of UF6 cylinders in Enrichment plants. This paper discusses the utilization of this high-precision distance measurement technology to count drums in a dry storage and assist nuclear inspectors to focus their verifications. The storage is populated with drums which are stored in a specific pattern. Instead of item counting the drums by hand, as performed so far, taking a lot of time with certain likelihood to make errors and exposing operators and inspectors to high levels of radiation, the paper presents an application in which the 3D laser scanner is used to automatically count the number of drums in a store and helps the inspectors to focus their verification activities on particular drums. The article discusses the technology and present results from a field-trial executed in a real dry storage. Furthermore, the paper reports on the pros and cons of the proposed application as well as giving examples of results which can be expected from future normal operation in the field.