Abstract
The United Kingdom (UK) has a significant legacy of nuclear installations to be decommissioned over the next 100 years and a thorough characterisation is required prior to the development of a detailed decommissioning plan. Alpha radiation detection is notoriously time consuming and difficult to carry out due to the short range of alpha particles in air. Long-range detection of alpha particles is therefore highly desirable and this has been attempted through the detection of secondary effects from alpha radiation, most notably the air-radioluminescence caused by ionisation. This paper evaluates alpha induced air radioluminescence detectors developed to date and looks at their potential to develop a stand-off, alpha radiation detector which can be used in the nuclear decommissioning field in daylight conditions to detect alpha contaminated materials.
Highlights
Since its inception in the 1940s firstly as a means to produce plutonium for weapons and later for energy generation, the United Kingdom (UK) nuclear industry has as a consequence of operations seen radioactive contamination of its facilities across the UK
At the end of their useful life, these facilities require decommissioning and clean up to remove hazardous substances in order that the site can be repurposed or reused. This produces significant quantities of waste, which is forecast to reach a total of 4.7 million tonnes over the 100 years [1]. This waste falls into several categories depending on the type, levels, activity, half-life, etc. of radioactivity of the waste including: very short lived waste (VSLW); very low level waste (VLLW), low level waste (LLW), intermediate level waste (ILW) or high level waste (HLW); and waste which does not exhibit any radioactive contamination (EW—Exempt Waste)
This paper looks at existing alpha particle detection methods, the detection of alpha particles through alpha-induced air-radioluminescence
Summary
Since its inception in the 1940s firstly as a means to produce plutonium for weapons and later for energy generation, the UK nuclear industry has as a consequence of operations seen radioactive contamination of its facilities across the UK. At the end of their useful life, these facilities require decommissioning and clean up to remove hazardous substances in order that the site can be repurposed or reused This produces significant quantities of waste, which is forecast to reach a total of 4.7 million tonnes over the 100 years [1]. It is important for financial and safety reasons that plant and equipment is correctly characterised prior to decommissioning taking place in order that a suitable, efficient and safe plan for the removal and storage of waste can be drawn up and implemented. The work is primarily focused on the research into and application of alpha detection technology for nuclear decommissioning, it is possible that there could be applications for other areas such as nuclear safeguards and security
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
