Management Strategy for the Cascade Characterization Project at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant

In June 2004, the Applied Nuclear Technology (ANT) Department at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant was tasked with conducting a sizable nondestructive assay (NDA) measurement program outside of the scope of ANT's normal activities. The program encompasses measurement of two of the three main gaseous diffusion process buildings at Portsmouth over a period of 15 months. Because the measurement program is outside of the scope of ANT's normal activities, sufficient resources for completion of the measurements and analyses needed within the project timeframe did not exist at the start of the program. In addition, a significant amount of software needed to be written to house the data, perform quantification estimates, and to report measurement results. Because wide variations in effort are needed to measure and analyze the items present in a gaseous diffusion plant (compressors, converters, process piping, and auxiliary process equipment), metrics were also developed to associate the level of effort involved with specific items measured so that progress could accurately be tracked. The paper will present the management strategy for the project and report on progress to date.