Metrofission Project: An Overview of the ENEA Contribution

Abstract

The paper describes the progress made by ENEA-INMRI in the research carried out within the framework of the Joint Research Project (JRP) ENG08 Metrofission of the European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP). This JRP aims to solve important problems related to the development of the Generation IV (GenIV) nuclear power plants in Europe as required by new demands of energy supplies that must be secure, sustainable, of high quality and also able to reduce the green house gas emissions. In the Metrofission project the ENEA-INMRI is directly involved in three Working Packages (WPs): the WP6, that aims to develop a portable Triple-to-Double-Coincidence-Ratio (TDCR) system for measuring in-situ of pure beta radionuclides; the WP7, devoted to the development of modern acquisition techniques based on Digital Coincidence Counting (DCC) with high sampling speed for radionuclide standardization; the WP8, leaded by ENEA-INMRI, which takes into account the impact of the project toward the end-users and the nuclear industry. The new prototype of the ENEA-INMRI portable TDCR counter will be presented. The preliminary results obtained in the activity measurements of 14C and 63Ni standard sources carried out by the new counter equipped with the new front-end electronics based on the CAEN Digitizer DT5720 will be discussed.