New generation enrichment monitoring technology for gas centrifuge enrichment plants

We report our progress toward development of new generation on-line enrichment monitoring technology for UF
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gas centrifuge plants based on a transmission source and a NaI spectrometer. We use an X-ray tube with transmission filters instead of a decaying isotopic transmission source to eliminate the costly replacement of this source. The UF
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gas density measurement is based on the energy dependency of the mass attenuation for two characteristic X-ray lines generated by the transmission filters. An analytical expression for the UF
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density is derived and criteria for the selection of transmission energies are discussed. Because of the differential method of measurement, the UF
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gas density does not depend on the intensity of the X-ray source. We describe a design of a sealed UF
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gas test stand for development testing and calibration of various on-line enrichment monitoring instruments. The sealed source is intended to replace a UF
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gaseous loop currently used for calibration.