Method for estimating the inventory of an isotope separation cascade by the use of minor isotope transient concentration data

Abstract

An indirect method for estimating the inventory of a uranium enrichment cascade which presumably can be performed by the International Atomic Energy Agency within the Non-Proliferation Treaty limitations on its safeguards activities was devised and tested at the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (ORGDP). This method involves the feeding of a cascade with uranium that is significantly richer in one component than the normal cascade feed for a short period of time, and the measurement of the subsequent transient concentrations of this component in the cascade withdrawal streams. The inventory estimate is then obtained from a comparison of the observed data with parallel data calculated for an appropriate but non-identical cascade model. The validity of the method is demonstrated numerically by parallel calculations made for two nearly ideal hypothetical cascade models. A test of this method conducted in the ORGDP cascade, utilizing U-236 as the spike component, yielded an estimate of the cascade inventory greater by 3.0% than that determined by the usual measurement method. The proposed method has been devised for use at enrichment plants that are subject to safeguarding by the IAEA and for which the proprietors will permit the inventories to be known. The method does not require knowledge or determination of any technology information that may be considered to be sensitive. For it to be applied, a plant proprietor must be willing to spike his cascade with a non-normal feed and do or permit the extensive sampling of its feed and withdrawal streams that is entailed. The numerical demonstration of the validity of the method rests on a single comparison of two nearly hypothetical cascades.