Experience Of Developing An Integrated Nondestructive Assay System

A consortium of national laboratories is collaborating with the Savannah River Plant to develop an integrated system of state-of-the-art nondestructive assay (NDA) instrumentation to provide nuclear materials accounting and process control information for a new plutonium scrap recovery facility. Individual microcomputer-based instruments report assay results to an instrument control computer (ICC). The ICC, in turn, is part of a larger computer network that includes computers that perform process control and nuclear materials accounting functions. The experience in developing the integrated NDA system, the design, and the testing are discussed.