Aerosol measurements from plasma torch cuts on stainless steel, carbon steel, and aluminum

The main purpose of this project is to quantify aerosol particle size and generation rates produced by a plasma torch whencutting stainless steel, carbon steel and aluminum. the plasma torch is a common cutting tool used in the dismantling of nuclear facilities. Eventually, other cutting tools will be characterized and the information will be compiled in a user guide to aid in theplanning of both D&D and other cutting operations. The data will be taken from controlled laboratory experiments on uncontaminated metals and field samples taken during D&D operations at ANL nuclear facilities. The plasma torch data was collected from laboratory cutting tests conducted inside of a closed, filtered chamber. The particle size distributions were determined by isokinetically sampling the exhaust duct using a cascade impactor. Cuts on different thicknesses showed there was no observable dependence of the aerosol quantity produced as a function of material thickness for carbon steel. However, data for both stainless steel and aluminum revealed that the aerosol mass produced for these materials appear to have some dependance on thickness, with thinner materials producing tmore aerosols. The results of the laboratory cutting tests show that most measured particle size distributions are bimodal with one mode at about 0.2 {mu}m and the other at about 10 {mu}m. The average Mass Median Aerodynamic Diameters (MMAD`s) for these tests are 0.36 {+-}0.08 {mu}m for stainless steel, 0.48 {+-}0.17{mu}m for aluminum and 0.52{+-}0.12 {mu}m for carbon steel

Fission-fragment attachment to aerosols and their transport through capillary tubes

The transport of radioactive aerosols was studied using equipment, collectively called the Helium jet, that has been constructed to provide basic nuclear physics data on fission product nuclides. The transport of the fission products in the system depends on their attachment to aerosol particles. The system consists of 1) a tube furnace which generates aerosols by the sublimation or evaporation of source material, 2) a helium stream used to transport the aerosols, 3) a 25 m settling tube to eliminate the larger aerosols and smaller aerosols that would deposit in the capillary, 4) a Californium-252 self-fissioning source of fission product nuclides, and 5) a small capillary to carry the radioactive aerosols from the hot cell to the laboratory. Different source materials were aerosolized but NaCl is generally used because it yielded the highest transport efficiencies through the capillary. Particle size measurments were made with NaCl aerosols by using a cascade impactor, an optical light scattering device, and the capillary itself as a diffusion battery by performing radiation measurements and/or electrical conductivity measurements. Both radioactive and nonradioactive aerosols were measured in order to investigate the possibility of a preferential size range for fission product attachment. The measured size distributions were then used to calculate attachment coefficients and finally an attachment time

Using monatomic nitrogen induced by a pulsed arc to remove nitrogen oxides from a gas stream

The effectiveness of monatomic nitrogen, induced by a pulsed electric arc, in reducing nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO{sub 2}) was studied. The goal for this research is the reduction of nitrogen oxides (NO{sub x}) from automobile emissions by this alternative technique, which can be cost-effective (to be demonstrated in the near future) and has the potential to reduce NO{sub x} in exhaust containing up to 10% oxygen. The initial tests with 100, 500, and 1,000 ppm NO in pure nitrogen have shown that a greater than 50% reduction of NO/NO{sub x} is readily achievable. Different flow rates of the monatomic nitrogen and the gas stream were tested. The flow rate of the monatomic nitrogen did not have a significant effect on the reduction efficiency, unlike the flow rate of the gas stream. The cross-sectional flow area of the gas stream was varied in order to assess whether the proximity of the gas stream to the arc would affect NO/NO{sub x} reduction. Results of the tests revealed that the smallest cross-sectional area gave the best reduction, but it also had the greatest chance of contacting the arc. The composition of the gas stream was also varied to elucidate the effects of NO{sub 2} and O{sub 2} on the NO/NO{sub x} reduction efficiency. When NO{sub 2} and O{sub 2} are present in the gas stream, both gases lower the reduction efficiency significantly by creating more NO or NO{sub 2}. Experiments are continuing to improve the reduction efficiency. The electrical power, a function of pulse frequency, voltage, and current, was treated as a key parameter in the investigation. The power consumption of the high-voltage pulser apparatus for a 100-kW engine was estimated to be 3 kW

Basic studies of a gas-jet-coupled ion source for on-line isotope separation

A hollow-cathode ion source was used in a gas-jet-coupled configuration to produce ion beams of fission products transported to it from a /sup 252/Cf fission source. Solid aerosols of NaCl and Ag were used effectively as activity carriers in the gas-jet system. Flat-plate skimmers provided an effective coupling of the ion source to the gas jet. Ge(Li) spectrometric measurements of the activity deposited on an ion-beam collector relative to that deposited on a pre-skimmer collector were used to obtain separation efficiencies ranging from 0.1% to > 1% for Sr, Y, Tc, Te, Cs, Ba, Ce, Pr, Nd and Sm. The use of CCl/sub 4/ as a support gas resulted in a significant enhancement of the alkaline-earth and rare-earth separation efficiencies

Experimental relationship between the specific resistance of a HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filter and particle diameters of different aerosol materials

The increase in pressure drop across a HEPA filter has been measured as a function of the particle mass loading using two materials with different particle morphologies. The HEPA filter media chosen, is identical to the filter media used in the Airborne Activity Confinement System (AACS) on the Savannah River Reactors. The velocity through the test filter media was the same as the velocity through the AACS media, under normal operating flow conditions. Sodium Chloride challenge particles were generated using an atomizer, resulting in regularly shaped crystalline forms. Ammonium chloride aerosols were formed from the gas phase reaction of HCl and NH{sub 4}OH vapors resulting in irregular agglomerates. In both cases, the generation conditions were adjusted to provide several different particle size distributions. For each particle size distribution, the mass of material loaded per unit area of filter per unit pressure drop for a given filtration velocity (1/Specific resistance) was measured. Theoretical considerations in the most widely accepted filter cake model predict that the mass per unit area and per unit pressure drop should increase with the particle density times the particle diameter squared. However, these test results indicate that the increase in the mass loaded per unit area per unit pressure drop, for both materials, can be better described by plotting the specific resistance divided by the particle density as an inverse function of the particle density times the particle diameter squared. 9 refs., 7 figs