Commissioning Measurements and Experience Obtained from the Installation of a Fissile Mass Flow monitor in the URAL Electrochemical Integrated Plant (UEIP) in Novouralsk

The Blend Down Monitoring System (BDMS) equipment sent earlier to the Ural Electrochemical Integrated Plant (UEIP) at Novouralsk, Russia, was installed and implemented successfully on February 2, 1999. The BDMS installation supports the highly enriched uranium (HEU) Transparency Implementation Program for material subject to monitoring under the HEU purchase agreement between the United States of America (USA) and the Russian Federation (RF). The BDMS consists of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Fissile (uranium-235) Mass Flow Monitor (FMFM) and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Enrichment Monitor (EM). Two BDMS�s for monitoring the Main and Reserve HEU blending process lines were installed at UEIP. Independent operation of the FMFM Main and FMFM Reserve was successfully demonstrated for monitoring the fissile mass flow as well as the traceability of HEU to the product low enriched uranium. The FMFM systems failed when both systems were activated during the calibration phase due to a synchronization problem between the systems. This operational failure was caused by the presence of strong electromagnetic interference (EMI) in the blend point. The source-modulator shutter motion of the two FMFM systems was not being properly synchronized because of EMI producing a spurious signal on the synchronization cable connecting the two FMFM cabinets. The signature of this failure was successfully reproduced at ORNL after the visit. This unexpected problem was eliminated by a hardware modification and software improvements during a recent visit (June 9-11, 1999) to UEIP, and both systems are now operating as expected