Year
2012
Abstract
New safeguards measures involving unattended process monitoring are being investigated to more effectively achieve International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards objectives. The joint use of operator equipment to continuously monitor the weight of UF6 cylinders connected to the process could provide valuable process knowledge to the IAEA, including the number of cylinders processed and UF6 mass balances, while protecting sensitive operator process information. Many commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products are available to collect, store, analyze, visualize, and report gas centrifuge enrichment plant process data and information. Some of these commercial products leverage well-established industrial communication standards, such as OPC-UA, that provide security, platform independence, interoperability, and scalability. Oak Ridge National Laboratory has implemented process monitoring on a mock feed and withdrawal (F/W) facility that demonstrates some of the capabilities of COTS products. This system allows data to be collected, stored, analyzed, and visualized reliably and securely. It demonstrates the use of raw weight data to build knowledge about continuous F/W operations in the effort to meet safeguards objectives.