Year
2019
Abstract
The newly constituted NBL Program Office (NBL PO) is a remnant of the old New Brunswick Laboratory (NBL), the latter remained operational until the middle of 2016. The objectives of the NBL PO remain the same as those of NBL: (i) provider of Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) and (ii) administer the Proficiency Testing (PT) Program for nuclear material measurements. In particular, the PT Program is similar to the NBL Safeguards Measurement Evaluation Program, but with two notable differences: (i) test materials for the (future offerings) of the PT Program will be fabricated and characterized at the DOE contractor laboratories, and (ii) performance evaluation reports to participants will include Z/Zeta scores in addition to separate reporting of accuracy and precision for comparisons against the IAEA International Target Values. Five DOE contractor laboratories and three international facilities participated in the 2018 PT program. Uranium test materials made by NBL were analyzed for elemental uranium and uranium isotopic composition. Analyses techniques were D&G (Davies and Gray) titration, IDMS (isotope dilution mass spectrometry), and COMPUCEA (combined procedure for uranium concentration and enrichment assay), TIMS (Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry) and ICPMS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry). As a part of the services to the PT program customers, a three-day workshop was conducted at the Y-12 site on IDMS and TIMS measurement techniques and estimation of (GUM) uncertainty in those measurement results. Two statisticians from NIST, in coordination with the NBL PO, conducted the workshop. About 30 Y-12 technical staff attended the workshop. Feedback reports from Y-12 managers reveal sufficient interest in workshops/courses of similar nature to be developed and offered for other types of destructive and non-destructive analyses methods.