Use of calorimetric assay for operational and accountability measurements of pure plutonium metal

Plutonium pure metal products (PMP) are high purity plutonium metal items produced by electrorefining. The plutonium metal is produced as an approximately 3-kg ring. Accountability measurements for the electro-refining runs are typically balance/weight factor (incoming impure metal), chemistry (pure metal rings), and calorimetric assay or neutron counting of the crucibles and other wastes. The PMP items are qualified for their end use by extensive chemical assay. After PMP materials are made they are often sent to the vault for storage before being sent to the casting process, the next step in the production chain. The chemical assay of PMP items often takes a few weeks; however, before the metal items are allowed into the vault they must be measured. Non-destructive assay personnel measure the metals either by multiplicity neutron counting or calorimetric assay, depending on which instrument is available, thus generating comparisons between non-destructive assay and chemical assay. The suite of measurements, calorimetric assay, chemical assay, and neutron mUltiplicity counting is compared for a large group of PMP items.