Nuclear fuel technology - Tank calibration and volume determination for nuclear materials accountancy - Part 6: Accurate in-tank determination of liquid density in accountancy tanks equipped with dip tubes

ISO 18213 deals with the acquisition, standardization, analysis, and use of calibration data to determine liquid volumes in process tanks for accountability purposes. This part of ISO 18213 is complementary to the other parts, ISO 18213-1 (procedural overview), ISO 18213-2 (data standardization), ISO 18213-3 (statistical methods), ISO 18213-4 (slow bubbling rate), ISO 18213-5 (fast bubbling rate). The procedure described in this part of ISO 18213 is a two-step procedure. First, a liquid of known density is used to determine the vertical distance between the tips of the two probes (i.e. to calibrate their separation). The calibration step requires synchronous (or as nearly synchronous as possible) measurements of the pressure exerted at the tips of two probes by the calibration liquid in which they are submerged. The measurements obtained are used to make an accurate determination of probe separation. Second, the unknown density of the process liquid is determined with the aid of the probe separation calibration. The density-determination step also requires (nearly) synchronous measurements of the pressure exerted at the tips of two probes by the process liquid of unknown density. With careful technique, it is possible to make determinations of liquid density with in-tank measurements that approach the accuracy and precision of those made in the laboratory. Moreover, density determinations made with in-tank measurements are automatically made at the observed temperature of the tank liquid. Thus, no additional information about the liquid is required to infer its density at its tank temperature from determinations of its density at some other temperature. Except that the density of the process liquid is generally not well characterized, the steps involved in determining the height of process liquid in the tank are the same as those for determining the height of calibration liquid. Thus, the method of density determination given in this part of ISO 18213 is very closely related to the procedures given in ISO 18213-4 and ISO 18213-5 for determining liquid height