An electrical resistance tomography technique for the monitoring of a radioactive waste separation process

An electrical resistance tomography (ERT) technique is suggested to monitor a radioactive waste separation process. This paper presents analytical results for a simple model problem to estimate the boundary between two distinct waste streams in a rotating separator as well as the conductivity value of each stream. To solve this highly non-linear identification problem, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is successfully introduced. The results show the feasibility of the ERT for monitoring the separation process.