Nuclear

Over 450 nuclear power stations exist in the world delivering steam and electricity to wide collections of users. The power is generated by superheated steam which obtains its heat via the controlled degradation of nuclear material such as Uranium. These power stations are characterised by being very expensive to build due to the need to contain the radioactivity, but generating relatively low cost electricity that is not subject to the fluctuations of the oil and gas prices. Due to the radioactivity the industry is highly regulated.

The industry faces a number of challenges:

• A perceived image that nuclear power is dangerous

• Disposal issues with the spent fuel

• Very difficult to maintain due to very restricted access due to radioactivity

The industry does however generate “green” electricity as no CO2 is generated. For this reason and the increasing cost of other alternatives the world is experiencing a boom in the building of new nuclear power stations which will continue for many years.

The measurement challenges fall into two areas:

• Measuring inside vessels where no internal access is possible

• Measurement of nuclear slurries that may be highly radioactive

Electrical process tomography is a valuable measurement tool as the sensors in proximity to the process are simply electrodes with a support substrate with no moving parts or elements which are damaged by radioactivity.

Process tomography can  be used in a wide variety of unit processes in the processing of nuclear waste and handling of nuclear materials.  For example:

• mixing, where it is necessary to ensure that slurries or other systems are well distributed in a vessel
• flow, of slurries, where it is necessary to determine solids concentrations and flow characteristics
• separation, for example determining the performance of filters and packed beds, liquid-liquid separation (organic / aqueous separation), as well as more complex processes such as monitoring of vortex mixing
• reactions, such as crystallisation
• Nuclear Waste Management and characterisation of waste, such as slurries and sludge

Register or click on applications and solutions related content on the right to access further information on how Tomography can help your industry.

Publications:

G.T. Bolton and S.J. Stanley (2009) Measurement of solid-liquid mixtures using electrical tomographic measurement techniques, Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management (ICEM09), October 11-15, 2009, Liverpool, UK

Vortex monitoring case study - ITS

Stephenson, D., Cooke, M., Kowalski, A. and Yorke, T.A. (2007) Determining jet mixing characteristics using electrical resistance tomography, Flow Measurement and Instrumentation, Vol. 18, No. 5-6, pp 204-210

Bolton, GT, Bennett, M, Wang, M, Qiu, C, Wright, M, Stanley, SJ and Rhodes, D (2007) Development of an electrical tomographic system for operation in a remote, acidic and radioactive environment, Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol. 130, Issues 2-3, pp 165-169

Stanley SJ, Tomographic imaging during reactive precipitation: mixing with chemical reaction, Chemical Engineering Science, 2006, 61 (23), pp 7850-7863

Stanley, SJ, Mann, R and Primrose, KM (2005) Interrogation of a precipitation reaction by electrical resistance tomography, AIChE Journal, Vol. 51, No. 2, 607-614

For more information about this paper, please contact ITS.