STATUS UPDATE: URANYL NITRATE CALIBRATION LOOP EQUIPMENT (UNCLE) AT ORNL

The successful completion of a field trial of safeguards monitoring equipment at a natural uranium conversion plant (NUCP) demonstrated the need for a facility in which to perform full-scale equipment testing under controlled conditions prior to field deployment of safeguards systems at additional plants. Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed a Uranyl Nitrate Calibration Loop Equipment (UNCLE) facility to simulate the full-scale operating conditions for a purified uranium-bearing aqueous stream exiting the solvent extraction process conducted in an NUCP. In addition to calibrating instruments such as the neutron detector developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, UNCLE will be used to test other in-line instruments (mass and volumetric flowmeters, spectrophotometers, etc.). UNCLE will be able to test commercially available equipment, such as the Endress+Hauser Promass 83F Coriolis meter that was used in the field test and other equipment that is presently under development. UNCLE is designed to accommodate different pipe sizes, flow rates, solution concentrations, and other variables of interest. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of September 2008 with initial testing beginning later that year. The design and current status of UNCLE will be presented, along with the capabilities of the facility and the proposed test plans.