Pulsed eddy current thickness measurements of transuranic waste containers

Thickness measurements on fifty five gallon waste drums for drum integrity purposes have been traditionally performed at the INEL using ultrasonic testing methods. Ultrasonic methods provide high resolution repeatable thickness measurements in a timely manner, however, the major drawback of using ultrasonic techniques is coupling to the drum. Areas with severe exterior corrosion, debonded paper labels or any other obstacle in the acoustic path will have to be omitted from the ultrasonic scan. We have developed a pulsed eddy current scanning system that can take thickness measurements on fifty five gallon carbon steel drums with wall thicknesses up to 65 mils. This type of measurement is not susceptible to the problems mentioned above. Eddy current measurements in the past have excluded ferromagnetic materials such as carbon steel because of the difficulty in penetrating the material and in compensating for changes in permeability from material to material. New developments in data acquisition electronics as well as advances in personal computers have made a pulsed eddy current system practical and inexpensive. Certain aspects of the pulsed eddy current technique as well as the operation of such a system and features such as real time pass/fail thresholds for overpacking identification and full scan data archiving for future evaluation will be discussed.