Nuclear Sampling & Transfer Autoclave Systems

The nuclear fuel industry uses autoclaves to prevent the accidental emission of gaseous UF6 (uranium hexafluoride) during feeding, delivery, and sampling operations.

These specialized autoclaves are designed to accept 30B, 30C, 48X, and 48G storage cylinders and are used to finely control the heating and cooling in order to melt, vaporize, transfer, and re-solidify the enriched UF6 product.

Sampling autoclaves are used to fill sampling bottles with small amounts of UF6 in order to test the enrichment of the product. These autoclaves typically have an integral tilting capability in order to facilitate the sampling.

Transfer autoclaves are used to sublimate the solid UF6 into gaseous UF6 for transfer to the centrifuge cascades.

ASC is the only company in the U.S. qualified to build UF6 sampling and transfer autoclaves and have received multiple orders for Nuclear autoclaves in the past 5 years. These autoclaves have to meet the stringent NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) requirements. We are ASME NQA-1 qualified and our quality system has been certified by multiple nuclear fuel producers. See http://www.nrc.gov/materials/fuel-cycle-fac/ur-enrichment.html for more information regarding uranium enrichment.