Abstract
Characterisation of contaminated and activated decommissioning waste require sampling of the studied material for the analysis of different radionuclides. The volatility of 3H and 14C can lead to the loss of the analytes in sampling of solid materials since most often at least some heat is involved in the sampling technique. Especially 3H can be lost in cases when it is present as tritiated water (HTO) due to the evaporation of water even at low temperatures. Therefore, in this study, the 3H and 14C speciations are discussed. Consequently, a drilling sampling technique was developed in order to capture the released 3H and 14C in absorption solutions and measured using liquid scintillation counting. The sampling technique was tested on an activated concrete core. The collected samples were analysed for 3H and 14C (activity concentration and speciation) using a thermal oxidation technique. The results showed that a significant amount of 3H was released during sampling even though the majority of 3H was strongly bound in the activated concrete. The studied activated concrete did not contain measurable amount of 14C and therefore speciation studies were not possible.
Highlights
The reliability of difficult to measure (DTM) radionuclide analyses of solid decommissioning waste is affected by the volatility of the radionuclide, sampling technique and radiochemical analysis method
Volatile DTMs, such as 3H, 14C, 36Cl and 125I, can be at least partly lost due to thermal decomposition when heat is involved in the sampling process
This paper presents the sampling development procedure, discusses the effect of speciation and applied sampling technique on the release of 3H and 14C, and discusses the results from sampling carried out on an activated concrete core
Summary
The reliability of difficult to measure (DTM) radionuclide analyses of solid decommissioning waste is affected by the volatility of the radionuclide, sampling technique and radiochemical analysis method. The release of 3H and 14C during the sampling of an activated concrete core originating from the FiR 1 research reactor biological shield is presented. This paper presents the sampling development procedure, discusses the effect of speciation and applied sampling technique on the release of 3H and 14C, and discusses the results from sampling carried out on an activated concrete core.
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