Active source requirements for assay of sludge drums on the BIR WIT system

The design of the active source for active and passive computed tomography (A&PCT) is critical with respect to accuracy and throughput. The A&PCT active source requirements are highly dependent upon the attenuation properties of the waste matrix within the drum. On of the most highly attenuating waste matrices is sludge. This waste stream will consist of solidified aqueous waste consisting of IDC 001 first stage sludge and IDC 007 wet sludge. Also, the stream consists of solidified organic waste known as code IDC 003 organic setups. We have evaluated the sludge drum data that was previously acquired on the WIT system and have determined that the active source activity must be increased to provide reasonable throughput. The sludge drum that is evaluated here is drum CEPRF11. CEPRF11 is a test drum that was part of the Nondestructive Assay system Capability Evaluation Project (CEP) and contained an actual Rocky Flats waste that is categorized as code 003 solidified organic waste. The full drum was evaluated and found to be somewhat homogenous; therefore, a single slice is arbitrarily chosen to represent the entire drum. Slice number 8 is used and is located approximately at the center of the drum. Figure 1 shows the averaged projections for different energies derived from the active sinogram of slice number 8 from the CEPRF11 drum. This is the average of all the projections of slice 8 taken over 180 degrees with an active integration time of 6 seconds. Figure 2 is also a graph showing the average of all the projections for slice 8; however, the active integration time is 30 seconds.