Year
2007
Abstract
The Los Alamos National Laboratory transuranic (TRU) non-destructive assay (NDA) characterization program implemented a gamma detector “Quick Scan” evaluation methodology to segregate waste drums for subsequent processing. The QUICKSCAN acquisition process is fast, requiring only 10 minutes per drum. Based on the measurement criteria, the analyst directs each waste drum to processes included repackaging, instruments to evaluate for low level waste handling, or instruments for certifying waste for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The initial manual analysis methodology was slow and needed to be automated. A visual basic application (VBA) using Microsoft Excel was implemented to control the MAESTRO gamma analysis, generate region of interest reports, and import the data into an Excel spreadsheet. The resulting automation reduced the time needed to evaluate 40 spectra from nearly 16 hours to 25 minutes. The paper will describe the VBA application and demonstrate its implementation.