Demonstration of an Instrumental Technique in the Measurement of Solution Weight in the Accountability Vessels of a Fuel Reprocessing Plant
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L rC, IAEA-R-1399-F Demonstration of an instrumental technique in the measurement of solution weight in the accountability vessels of a fuel reprocessing plant îf'r 15 November 1973 - 30 November 1976 &P.-{ '!. Kentaro Nakajima Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation, Tokai Works Tokyo, Japan ,Vfr ' '•€' 'ï: ;'•&<>• ' '' •'XT i§ a '•***' IKTEREATIOHAL AT0K1C 5HEPCT AGE»0i' MTF April 1977 • My.' iS L FINAL REPORT OF IAEA u-\ RESEARCH CONTRACT No. 1399/R1/R.B il lui \-?:\ ••*> DEMONSTRATION OF INSTRUMENTAL TECHNIQUE IN THE MEASUREMENT OF SOLUTION WEIGHT IN THE ACCOUNTABILITY VESSEL OF A FUEL REPROCESSING PLANT MARCH 1977 POWER REACTOR & NUCLEAR FUEL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION TOKYO JAPAN ^.- •>••• • ;fe Z€nv^^ ' r L W -si CONTENTS Summary 1 Description of research carried out 2 1. Introduction 2 2. Preliminary Preparation 4 3. Calibration of volume measurement using diptube manometer system 14 4. Calibration of mass measurement using strain-gage load cell system 25 5. Comparison of accuracy between drip tube manometer system and strain gage load cell system 35 •ÏI 6. Actual measurement at uranium cold run 38 7. Evaluation for tamper-proof system 43 Results obtained and Conclusions drawn 45 H ,...=# L Summary Research Contract No. 1399/Rl/RB Title of Project : Demonstration of instrumental technique in the measurement of solution weight in the accountability vessel of a fuel reprocessing plant. Institute where research is being carried out : Reprocessing Construction Office, Tokai Works, Power Reactor te & Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation (PNC), Tokai-mura, Naka-gun, Ibaraki-ken, Japan. Chief scientific investigator : Kentaro Nakajima. Time period covered : Nov. 1973 ^ Mar. 1977. ; ,oS'.. lÙ-'-'-éi- - 1 - --p. if: Description of research carried out 1. Introduction Current technique for measurement of the quantity of •ma--. radioactive solution in a reprocessing facility vessel is a volumetric one by diptube manometer system. This system has inherent uncertainties and is not readily automated within the desired limit of precision. If weighing of the important accountability vessel such as input and plutonium product vessels could be accomplished with an accuracy and precision better than the volumetric method, a significant advantage in term of measurement and control of special nuclear materials for accountability purpose could result. The feasibility study of determining the content of the input accountability vessel and the plutonium product accountability vessel by a weighing technique had been carried out under IAEA research contract No. 1143/RB, 1972, so following results were obtained, i) Overall weight measuring error of nuclear fuel solution in the input weight measuring vessel and the plutonium product storage vessel has been able to be made less than 0.1M).15% F.S. ii) For the plutonium product accountability vessel the overall measuring error has been less than 0.2M).3% F.S., 11: although the ratio of net to tare weight of the vessel is relatively low (0.23) and the stiffness of the piping piping is high, iii) The overall accuracy has been able to be maintained - 2 - r under gamma radiation with the maximum accumulated exposure of 109 Rad. iv) This system allows fully automatic weight measuring operation and complete tamper-proofing has been able to be accomplished. According to above feasibility study result, this sys- tem were installed to three vessels such as input accounta- bility vessel, plutonium product accountability vessel, and plutonium product storage vessel in PNC reprocessing plant, w: and the demonstration has been carried out. This research is consisted two parts. Phase I and Phase •ft"-" II. Phase I is Preliminary Preparation and at Cold Run and I i Phase II is at Hot Run. Phase I has been covered from November 1973, to March 1977. ><•' • These items are shown as follows. (i) Preliminary preparation of strain-gage load cell, (ii) Calibration of volume measurement using diptube manometer system, i; "•.'-•- (iii) Calibration of mass measurement using strain-gage load cell system, (iv) Comparison of accuracy between diptube manometer system and strain-gage load cell system, (v) Actual measurement at Uranium Cold Run. £•, '. (vi) Evaluation for tamper-proof system. % •M- - 3 - 2. Preliminary Preparation (i) Instrumentation for volume measurement Input accountability vessel, Plutonium product :•'/•, accountability vessel and Plutonium product storage vessel are the most strategic points for special nuclear material safeguards purpose in a reprocessing plant. 'et' The location and the synopsis are shown as Fig. 1 and Table 1 respectively. Volume measurements and sampling for determination of special nuclear material concentration are taken in these three vessels. For each vessel, similar procedures are 9V,1 .,' used for volume measurement. Well known procedure which is diptube manometer T system for volume measurement of the vessel in various 'fc - reprocessing plant has been taken into our PNC reprocessing h; plant also. •*<•• Typical measurement systems are shown as Fig. 2. *•-'• /•< - ft-' #';:£ ,':,v ,/ - 4 - r G 0 (U CD 0) tt 01 (0 03 U w 0 S 2 u o u CO 0 u en en 4J 4J S 1-1 Su fa es •0 4J •uH •Oo o S S U Pu 4) 2 9 W'\ CO U •H •H >! M 0 0 0 O c e g 1 i> M fi . i '' < M u f o Q ! - z g | e rag I ui 0 3 O 0) o O JJ en 0) 0) en 0) Ai 03 o w o H u H s u •a 4J c c t t uc du uc du d a d o o sch -Pr -Pr Pro Pro •H i 9 i 9 A Pu 9 O, i m 00 en rKoT •H a ifl 0 a) Ti eu 9 i-l O ••rot p. en a •H S -<j à:ï QJ 52 as T3 |xi •o 1-?1 ai a 4J o o a en o ^t ai m a o 00 a. •H 0. ai •rt V} Q as \ o T-l <N CI z m - 5 - LOi. L. 60 * a o •» g m-rt C 3 O 4J 0) H tu •>-' iH PU CO H-l td CO P Pu 5 B. /S. - 6 - 1 L m DENSITY & LEVEL RECORDER M,: TEMP. INDICATOR BENSITÏ, LEVEL MilNOMETERS HNO3 FEED OUT $•• MOLING f. '• COIL**-"" " . Fig. 2(A) VOLUME MEASUREMENT SYSTEM OF INPUT ACCOUNTABILITY VESSEL - 7 - L i DENSITY & LEVEL RECORDER LEVEL DENSITY MANOMETERS I 1 T TEMP. INDICATOR from 1 PLUTONIUM TAKE OUT EVAPORATOR 1 to Pu-PRODUCT STORAGE PUMP Pu-PRODUCT ACCOUNTABILITY VESSEL Fig. 2(B) VOLUME MEASUREMENT SYSTEM OF Pu-PRODUCT ACCOUNTABILITY VESSEL - 8 - LEVEL INDICATOR i S' ': TRANSMITTERS from Pu-PRODUCT ACCOUNTABILITY VESSEL TAKE OUT Pu-PRODUCT STORAGE VESSEL ;*t '• Fig. 2(C) VOLUME MEASUREMENT SYSTEM OF Pu-PRODUCT STORAGE VESSEL - 9 - r (ii) Application of strain gage load cells Instrumentation of strain-gage load cell for three vessel were carried Out by Kyowa Dengiyo Company in Japan. These instrument system which is shown as Fig. 3, has been consisted of load cells, junction box, bridge conditioner, signal change unit, digital indicator and printer. Before mounting to the facility, inspection of load cell unit, digital indicator were carried out by PNC inspector at maker's facility. In this work, correlation between output from load cell and digital indication was estimated. - 10 - L L ?» A- &1- ••<- . i ft:' 3 ^ •H !§ JO (8 m 4J H O <uu U O CI ta •o * § M) rH u 1 3 .«..i Sî - 11 - •Ig,^ The procedure was shown as follows. The known weight was put on load cell and outputs fron load cell and digital indication were measured, then non- linearity arid hysteresis were estimated. The results are shown as Table 2. \ After the test in maker's facility, instruments was transfered into PNC reprocessing plant and mounted to each vessels. The mounting was finished March 1975. | y "&~ • - 12 - V- J<*6r;>i ki ta CO S T CO CO fa fa VE DUC E OP dP o (^ * o o H O 1 O o o 3 EH ft CO CO CO X EH H CO CO H! fa fa "(Si- CJ S 4P <*> £3 3 H Q ÊH O o PS C* o o CU O 1 U 9U X H Hi H 3 g CO CO fa fa oCJ dP OP m m rtiu o o EH H) o o- n) CU CO u 1 CO to ij y 3 H / X fa CO / ï-'-rt" CO / H SIS en CO 7 E fa HÎ S i H I 2 | EH / w CO / EH o / H S3 '••*!, - 13 - h y-"' IP m r 3. Calibration of volume measurement using diptube manometer system i) input accountability vessel The calibration check of input accountability vessel was carried out two times. First time : at June 1974, we made calibration curves, and temperature change test calibration curve is shown as Fig. 4, Concerning temperature test, liquid temperature of input %-•"• accountability vessel was increase by means of steam jet until 65°C, volume was measured 10 minutes each and it was 3?'-'" K continued about 3 hours so that the level have not changed V: during the test. Second time : at September 1976, the calibration check was carried out under suveillance of IAEA inspectors. ?'-•'-• Procedure was following: t,: a) The measurement was carried out at room temperature using demineralized water. b) Level and density measurements [back pressure of dip- tube measurements) were carried out by high precision water manometer for each diptube with an air purge rate of 7 N«,/hr. c) The feed liquid volume was measured by standard liquid measuring tanks (the accuracy was within ±0.17% error). d) The number of calibration points were 24 points, which were 10 points of 10£ each, 4 points of 25J, each, 3 points of 100£ each, and 7 points of 500«, each.