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Parsons, Brendon Andrew

Publications and source records attributed to Parsons, Brendon Andrew.

8 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Formal Experimentation and Analysis of Handheld RFID Readers as a Tool for Nuclear Material Accounting

Commercial, off-the-shelf Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems have been successfully deployed for inventory tracking in numerous industries, but their viability in the tracking of complex environments containing nuclear material is less understood. Of primary interest in this setting is a RFID tracking system for nuclear material accounting which can reliably identify as many tags as possible with high accuracy, while also reducing an operator’s exposure to radiation. In this work, we develop a formal statistical approach to identify relevant handheld RFID reader settings which optimize tagging performance. To achieve this goal, we design a full factorial split-plot experiment for a static shelf configuration scene with 50 randomly placed nuclear material containers affixed with RFID tags. We use Bayesian inference to fit a second-order response surface model which expresses the probability of a successful match for each container as a function of the experimental factors. Such effects are allowed to vary across individual containers and the containers’ population in its entirety to estimate overall effects. Uncertainties of estimates and predictions are quantified via their corresponding posterior distributions. Following extensive model checking and validation, the fitted model is used to identify experimental factors which maximize matching probabilities at both the container-level and for the full shelf configuration scene. We also analyze sensitivity of performance to relevant factors.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Overview of PFAS at LANL [Slides]

This presentation addresses these questions. What are the potential uses and sources of PFAS at LANL? What are the emerging issues? What are federal and state agencies doing regarding PFAS? Where are we monitoring PFAS at LANL? What are the preliminary findings of PFAS monitoring? What do the data suggest? Where do we go from here?

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Per/Polyfluoro Alkyl Substances (PFAS) [Slides]

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of manmade chemicals. Special properties include surfactant, oil-repelling, and water-repelling. Some are environmentally stable and bioaccumulative. There is evidence for negative health effects associated with exposure. Over 4,000 varieties are known so far to have been produced and used in industrial and consumer products.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Cheesecloth Alternatives Testing

Heat source plutonium oxide (HS-PuO 2 ) enriched with 65% or greater plutonium-238, is recovered and purified using an aqueous nitric acid process. Historically, cheesecloth has been employed for small spill clean-up and for routine housekeeping. However, the 2016 Department of Energy (DOE) Operating Experience report, entitled Nitrate Waste Evaluations, stated that the mixing of nitrate wastes with organic absorbents, such as cheesecloth, may render transuranic waste unacceptable for disposal at WIPP in the future. This report explores the feasibility of replacement of cheesecloth with an alternative sorbent wipe that has similar absorption and cleaning abilities and improved acid resistance. Currently, cheesecloth is used for three different functions in HS-PuO 2 operations: spill cleanup; general housekeeping operations such as cleaning glovebox floors and windows, balances, furnaces, etc.; and decontamination of iridium cladded heat sources containing HS-PuO 2 . Alternatives used for spill cleanup must be able to tolerate high neutron doses found in the HS-Pu gloveboxes. They must also be able to withstand exposure to nitric acid concentrations up to 15.8 M without decomposing. Wipes used for general housekeeping must also be durable enough to clean rough surfaces and remain intact when used for scrubbing. Wipes used for clad decontamination do not need to absorb large amounts of liquid but they must be able to withstand neutron exposures, temperatures of up to several hundred degrees Celsius, and exposure to acid solutions followed by mild scrubbing. Finally wipes used for any purpose must resist chemical reactions with nitric acid that could cause issues for waste disposal such as energetic exothermic reactions or flammable gas build-up. The wipes selected for this study were ranked based on their usability (radiation tolerance, absorbency, integrity in nitric acid, and durability) as well as their chemical compatibility with nitric acid as demonstrated using several types of chemical analyses. Wipes were then ranked based on the combination of their usability and chemical compatibility scores.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗