Results of the Field Trial of the TRI-ACE and ACE Units in 2013?

The Tamper-Resistant/Indicating Aerosol Contaminant Extractor (TRI-ACE) was developed by the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and has been tested at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) since its initial inception in 2010. In 2013, a joint team from ORNL and SRNL traveled to the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant to collect samples by deploying the TRI-ACE alongside a standard ACE (Aerosol Contaminant Extractor) unit. The field trial’s goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of the TRI-ACE system in unattended monitoring of airborne particulates and to establish the effectiveness of ACE collection versus swipe collection in specific environments. If the collection plates and swipes provided accurate analysis, the system could potentially be deployed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at uranium- handling facilities as a safeguards measure. Following the conclusion of the field trial, the collection plates and swipe samples were divided between ORNL and SRNL. The ORNL team selected 20 samples for the determination of uranium concentration and uranium isotopic abundance. Using various techniques, including mass spectroscopy, the samples were processed. This paper will discuss the results found by the analysis team at ORNL and how they correlate to past field trials done by the team.