14C in spent ion-exchange resins and process water from nuclear reactors: A method for quantitative determination of organic and inorganic fractions

Abstract

A method of separately quantifying organic and inorganic 14C compounds present in spent ion-exchange resins and process water from nuclear power reactors has been developed. Extraction of carbon compounds is accomplished by means of acid stripping (inorganic 14C) and subsequent wet oxidation (organic 14C) or by N2 purging in combination with a catalytic furnace (oxidized and reduced gaseous compounds) with organic and inorganic 14C species collected separately. Recovery experiments on simulated samples spiked with 14C-labeled sodium carbonate, sodium acetate and sodium formate, showed extraction yields of 94–98%. The sample-specific procedures were also tested on authentic samples of spent resins and reactor water with good results. Validation and reliability of the procedures are presented and the method is compared to previous methods reported in the literature.