Accurate Volume Measurement System for Plutonium Nitrate Solution

An accurate volume measurement system for a large amount of plutonium nitrate solution stored in a reprocessing or a conversion plant has been developed at the Plutonium Conversion Development Facility (PCDF) in the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. (PNC) Tokai Works. A pair of differential digital quartz pressure transducers is utilized in the volume measurement system. To obtain high accuracy, it is important that the non-linearity of the transducer is minimized within the measurement range, the zero point is stabilized, and the damping property of the pneumatic line is designed to minimize pressure oscillation. The accuracy of the pressure measurement can always be within 2 Pa with re-calibration once a year. In the PCDF, the overall uncertainty of the volume measurement has been evaluated to be within 0.2%. This system has been successfully applied to the Japanese government's and IAEA's routine inspection since 1984.