Radiochemical method for characterization of the filter cartridges from the IEA-R1 reactor

Abstract

The filter cartridges used in water purification system of the IEA-R1 research reactor become radioactive waste after the end of their useful life. The characterization of this waste is one step in their management, which aims at identifying and quantifying the radionuclides present, including those known as "difficult to measure" (DTM) radionuclides. Wastes from nuclear reactors contain fission and activation products and transuranic elements, only few of them emitting gamma radiation measurable by simple gamma spectrometry methods. In routine waste management activities, the concentrations of the DTM can only be estimated by indirect methods such as scaling factors. The method of the scaling factors uses empirically determined proportions between the concentrations of DTM radionuclides and that of easily measurable gamma emitters called key nuclides (KN), to calculate DTM concentrations. Determining the scaling factors for the filter cartridges is a hard task when the number of samples is large, not only because the preparation of samples is difficult but also because the number of radionuclides to analyze is large. If it can be demonstrated that DTM and KN are both distributed evenly in the filters, less samples from each filter are necessary, reducing lab work. The aim of this paper is to present the results of the assessment of homogeneity along the filter cartridges by gamma spectrometry of chemically reduced samples. Five thin slices of five filters were burnt and the ashes quantitatively dissolved and the activity concentration of the solutions determined by gamma spectrometry.