Data Integration of the Non-Destructive Assay Measurement Systems at the Physical Inventory Taking Laboratory at the Mayak Production Association

The Savannah River Technology Center in cooperation with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has developed software to control the Non-Destructive Assay (NDA) measurement equipment and integrate the data for the Physical Inventory Taking Laboratory at the Mayak Production Association. This data integration allows for the automatic processing of NDA data and eliminates the need for manual processing of various file formats to perform plutonium mass calculations and comparisons. Four software routines were developed to control the measurement process, archive the data, automatically calculate the plutonium mass, and compare the measured quantities with accountancy records. The system consists of a control computer, server computer, bar code readers, two gamma spectroscopy systems, two active well coincidence counters (AWCCs), and a scale. The server and control computers are networked so data can be transferred between them and allow the server computer software routines to send processing information to the control computer. The Count Control software is the main software package that was developed. This software, run from the control computer, automatically calls the appropriate measurement software program when an instrument bar code is read. The gamma and neutron software programs are commercial software packages that are called as either macros or executable files requiring no user interaction. Setup and configuration of the instruments can also be performed using the Count Control Software. The container barcode is used to track the measurement data and associate it with the data file. As each measurement is completed, the data necessary to calculate the total and individual isotopic masses are extracted from the data file and stored in a new file associated with the container. Once both the neutron and gamma data is obtained for a container, the PuQuant software automatically calculates the plutonium mass and archives the data on the server computer. The server computer will eventually be networked with the plant’s material database and the data will be automatically stored in this database. A comparison software routine compares the plant material database mass quantity associated with the container with the newly measured quantity and notifies the Count Control software if a discrepancy exists. A description of the software will be discussed.