Laboratory evaluation of the Pipe Explorer{trademark} gamma measurement and deployment capability

The DOE is faced with the responsibility of decommissioning and dismantling many of its nuclear process facilities. Much of this will involve piping systems which may or may not be contaminated with radioactive material. It is important to be able to differentiate contaminated from non-contaminated material, since the disposal costs for radioactive waste are significant (on the order of hundreds of dollars per cubic foot). In the case of pipes, this determination may be particularly difficult if the pipes are not easily accessible. As a solution to this problem, SEA is developing an inverting membrane technology, called Pipe Explorer{trademark} which uses commercial gamma spectroscopy systems to characterize the radiation levels inside of pipes. The heart of the system is an air-tight membrane which is initially spooled inside of a canister. The end of the membrane protruding out of the canister is folded over and attached to a basepipe. With this configuration, when the canister becomes pressurized the pressure force on the membrane causes the membrane to be pulled from the spool. This continues until the membrane is completely off the spool. A radiation detector is attached to the end of the membrane and towed into the pipe as the membrane continues to evert. The detector cabling is also towed into the pipe. To retrieve the system from a pipe the process is simply reversed, where the cabling, detector, and membrane are wound back onto the spool. The system can thus be used to move a detector freely back and forth through a pipe to provide high resolution analysis of the location of radioactive contamination in pipes. This unique method can deploy the detector and analyze piping systems with multiple elbows and vertical runs. The membrane also serves to protect the expensive detector from contamination