USE OF THE NUCLEAR MATERIALS IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM (NMIS) FOR ENHANCED RECEIPT CONFIRMATION MEASUREMENTS AT THE OAK RIDGE Y-12 PLANT

The Nuclear Materials Identification System (NMIS) developed by the Instrumentation and Controls Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant has been used at the Oak Ridge Y-12 plant to perform enhanced receipts confirmation measurements providing mass estimates on low mass HEU metal pieces in shipping containers. For this application, NMIS was used in its active mode with a small Cf source on one side of the shipping container and detectors on the other side. Second order correlation measurements with calibration standards were utilized to obtain the mass of HEU. This was the first use of NMIS for receipts at the Y-12 Plant. This was a cost-effective method for measuring the mass of receipts with as many as 64 items measured in one day. This paper describes the reasons for using the NMIS for this application. The measurement technique and evaluation of the measurement data for this application are also described.