APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MONITORING STORED MATERIAL

摘要

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MONITORING STORED MATERIAL An apparatus and method for monitoring stored material is disclosed. Material to be stored and monitored is placed within the innermost container of a series of nested containers and monitoring fluids are circulated in a closed loop of fluid flow through the spaces between the nested containers. Monitoring devices are used to analyze said monitoring fluids to detect leakage of the stored material from the innermost nested container and to detect the migration of external fluids into the series of nested containers. A computer based monitoring system continually checks the values of various parameters of the monitoring fluids to immediately detect and report the presence of stored material or external fluid in the monitoring fluids. The stored material may then be immediately retrieved from storage to repair leaks in the series of nested containers. The invention is particularly suited for monitoring the storage of hazardous material such as radioactive waste material. This invention relates generally to the storage of material and in particular to the monitoring of storage containers to detect leakage of material from the storage containers and to detect the migration of fluids into the storage containers. The stored material may be immediately retrieved from storage when the leakage of material from the storage containers is detected or when the migration of fluid into the storage containers is detected. The invention is particularly suited for monitoring the storage of hazardous material such as radioactive waste material.