Low Level Waste Assay System
The system is designed to quantify plutonium and uranium in 200 L drums at levels below 10 nCi/g and at the same time perform plutonium isotopics measurements on drums containing less than 10 mg of plutonium.
The Auto Q2 (AQ2) system is Mirion's second generation Automated Low Level Waste Assay System. Based on the successful Canberra™ IQ3™ system, the system is designed to quantify plutonium and uranium in 200 L drums at levels below 10 nCi/g and at the same time perform plutonium isotopics measurements on drums containing less than 10 mg of plutonium.
At this level, low level waste drums can easily be segregated from TRU drums. For TRU drums the AQ2 system utilizes several techniques to provide accurate quantification of the fissile content of the drum. These include transmission correction to determine the drum matrix density, and lump detection using multi-energy assays.
For TRU waste, the AQ2 system utilizes the MGA Multi-Group Analysis software to determine the plutonium isotopics as well as the U/Pu ratio and the Pu/241Am ratio. MGAU software provides uranium isotopics values for materials which do not contain plutonium. The MGA analysis allows the gamma system to quantify the otherwise difficult to assay isotopes of plutonium.
The system is designed to be operated as an automated counting system which can process batches of drums, or can be incorporated into a complete NDA process line.
The following sections describe the system hardware and software as well as the typical system performance.
Do you have a question or need a custom solution? We're here to help guide your research.
Looking for Services or Support?
We're here to help.
