Performance of Nondestructive Radioassay Systems for Nuclear Waste

Abstract

A statistical analysis of the measurement performance of five mobile nondestructive assay systems currently in use for radioassay of nuclear waste was performed. Actual versus reported isotopic mass composition, reported versus actual measurement uncertainty, detection capability, and low level versus transuranic waste determination were assessed based on measurements of 11 surrogate waste drums. In terms of percent recovery the systems, for the most part, exhibited reasonable capabilities for estimating isotopic quantities in the surrogate waste drums. (By reasonable we mean, for example, that recovery values were in a range of 40% to 160% for most of the configurations tested.) While difference in performance on individual drums was quite large in some cases, nonparametric analysis of variance results for total plutonium and