Temporal response methods for dynamic measurement of in-process inventory of dissolved nuclear materials

This analysis has demonstrated that a plant's temporal response to perturbation of feed isotope composition can be used to measure the in-process inventory, without suspending plant operations. The main advantages of the temporal response technique over the step-displacement method are (1) it (the temporal response method) obviates the need for large special feed batches, and (2) it obviates the requirement that all the in-process material have a uniform isotopic composition at the beginning of the measurement. The temporal response method holds promise for essentially continuous real-time determination of in-process SNM. However, the temporal response method requires the measurement of the isotopic composition of many samples, and it works best for a stationary random input time series of tracer perturbations. Both of these requirements appear amenable to satisfaction by practical equipment and procedures if the benefits are deemed sufficiently worthwhile