Searching for Strontium, Americium and Plutonium Isotopes in Contaminated Soils

Katharina Breitenecker (Speaker), Andreas Vesely, Mile Djuricic, Roland Steininger, Helmuth Böck, Maria Villa

Research output: Chapter in Book or Conference ProceedingsConference Proceedings with Oral Presentationpeer-review

Abstract

In the course of decommissioning former nuclear facilities the surrounding premises have to be surveyed due to possible contaminations of radioactive material. Radioactive contamination of the premises is usually caused by common nuclides which often occur in substantial activity concentrations in nuclear facilities. A lot of fission- or activation products (137Cs, 134Cs, 133Ba, 60Co, 152Eu ...) can be detected quite easily in soils by gamma-spectrometry. Problematic radionuclides in this context are nuclides like 3H, 14C and 90Sr, which are pure beta emitters. Also the transuranic nuclides 238Pu, 239Pu, 240Pu and 241Pu are of particular importance in this work These radionuclides don´t have suitable gamma lines for detection, but they can be detected by LSC (3H, 14C, 90Sr, 241Pu) and alpha spectrometry (238Pu, 239Pu, 240Pu). This paper demonstrates the sample preparation procedure prior to the determination of 3H, 14C, 90Sr, 238Pu, 239Pu, 240Pu and 241Pu by alpha spectrometry and LSC by appropriate chemical separation. The analyses showed that the ratios of activity concentrations of Pu-isotopes are constant. Thus, by defining a suitable key nuclide it was possible to determine a nuclide vector for Pu-isotopes in soils for the premises of a former research reactor.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLSC 2008, Advances in Liquid Scintillation Spectrometry
Pages421-428
Number of pages8
Publication statusPublished - 2008
EventLSC 2008, Advances in Liquid Scintillation Spectrometry -
Duration: 25 May 200830 May 2008

Conference

ConferenceLSC 2008, Advances in Liquid Scintillation Spectrometry
Period25/05/0830/05/08

Research Field

  • Biosensor Technologies

Keywords

  • Liquid Scintillation Spectrometry

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