Recent trends in radioanalytical purification procedures and application to decommissioning of nuclear facilities

Robert Schupfner

doi:10.1515/kern-2003-0069

Article

Recent trends in radioanalytical purification procedures and application to decommissioning of nuclear facilities

Robert Schupfner

Published/Copyright: March 11, 2022

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From the journal Kerntechnik Volume 68 Issue 4

Abstract

The decommissioning of nuclear facilities demands an optimisation of analytical procedures to determine a variety of radionuclides in a variety of different materials on a wide activity scale ranging from very low to very high activities. Severe analytical problems arise from disadvantageous decay properties of a number of radionuclides. In the following the opportunities and limitations of recently developed analytical and nuclear detection methods are presented which has been applied successfully determining radionuclides like ⁵⁵Fe, ⁵⁹Ni, ⁶³Ni, ⁹⁰Sr, Th, U, Pu, Am, Cm. The applied analytical methods have to fulfil high quality standards including very low lower limits of detection, very high selectivity, sufficient precision and accuracy even in samples containing enhanced amounts of interfering elements. A new powerful tool is the application of collimated in-situ-γ-spectrometry. A recently developed calibration phantom named K-RISK is presented.

Abstract

Der Rückbau kerntechnischer Anlagen erfordert die Optimierung von Analysen-und Messmethoden zur Bestimmung einer Vielzahl von Radionukliden in einer Reihe unterschiedlicher Materialien in einem weiten Bereich von sehr niedrigen bis zu sehr hohen Aktivitäten. Dabei werfen die oft ungünstigen Zerfallseigenschaften bei einer Reihe von Radionukliden große analytische Probleme auf. Im Folgenden werden die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der kürzlich entwickelten Analysen- und Messmethoden dargestellt, die bereits erfolgreich auf ⁵⁵Fe, ⁵⁹Ni, ⁶³Ni, ⁹⁰Sr, Th, U, Pu, Am, Cm angewendet wurden. Die entwickelten Analysenmethoden müssen hohen Qualitätsanforderungen genügen wie sehr niedrige Nachweisgrenzen, sehr hohe Selektivität, und ausreichende Richtigkeit und Präzision auch in Proben mit erhöhtem Gehalt an Störelementen. Eine neue leistungsfähige Messmethode ist die kollimierte in-situ-γ-Spektrometrie. Das neu entwickelte Kalibrierphantom K-RISK wird vorgestellt.

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Received: 2003-03-06

Published Online: 2022-03-11

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https://doi.org/10.1515/kern-2003-0069