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Real-Time Monitor for Transuranics in Glass

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Tech ID: 2004
Project Overview
 The project has developed and assisted in implementing an on-line, real-time monitor for measuring the concentrations of americium and curium in a molten glass stream produced by the vitrification of tank waste at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The presence of the monitor will reduce the number of hazardous and expensive samplings and off-line analyses that will have to be done during the vitrification.
Technology Description
 This project has developed an on-line monitor that can measure in real time the concentrations of various metal oxides in a molten glass stream. It can be used to measure most transuranics in a vitrification process stream. The monitor uses the spontaneous thermal emission spectrum of the molten glass stream to measure the stream composition. It passively observes this spectrum through a fiber-optic cable, so the instrument can be mounted outside the radiation zone. It uses a charge-coupled-device-array-based spectrometer mounted on a personal computer expansion card, so the instrument as a whole is small and robust. The emission spectrum contains certain peaks that are characteristic of the individual transuranic metal oxides and whose heights indicate the concentrations of the metals. The baseline technology for vitrification monitoring requires sampling the glass, transporting the highly radioactive glass to the laboratory, performing a destructive analysis, most commonly using inductively coupled plasma techniques, and then storing or disposing of the sample. The project technology is safer, faster and cheaper because it provides an analysis in real time without contacting the radioactive glass stream.

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