Non-destructive method of characterisation of radioactive waste containers using gamma spectroscopy and Monte Carlo techniques

During the decommissioning of the SATURNE accelerator at CEA Saclay (France), a number of concrete containers with radioactive materials of low or very low activity had to be characterised before their final storage. In this paper, a non-destructive approach combining gamma ray spectroscopy and Mont...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Radiation protection dosimetry 2005-01, Vol.115 (1-4), p.113-116
Main Authors: Ridikas, D., Feray, S., Cometto, M., Damoy, F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Computer Simulation
Construction Materials - analysis
Equipment Design
Equipment Failure Analysis - methods
Industrial Waste - analysis
Materials Testing - methods
Models, Statistical
Monte Carlo Method
Nuclear Reactors
Radiation Dosage
Radiation Protection - instrumentation
Radiation Protection - methods
Radioisotopes - analysis
Radiometry - methods
Reproducibility of Results
Risk Assessment - methods
Risk Factors
Sensitivity and Specificity
Spectrometry, Gamma - methods
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Summary:During the decommissioning of the SATURNE accelerator at CEA Saclay (France), a number of concrete containers with radioactive materials of low or very low activity had to be characterised before their final storage. In this paper, a non-destructive approach combining gamma ray spectroscopy and Monte Carlo simulations is used in order to characterise massive concrete blocks containing some radioactive waste. The limits and uncertainties of the proposed method are quantified for the source term activity estimates using 137Cs as a tracer element. A series of activity measurements with a few representative waste containers were performed before and after destruction. It has been found that neither was the distribution of radioactive materials homogeneous nor was its density unique, and this became the major source of systematic errors in this study. Nevertheless, we conclude that by combining gamma ray spectroscopy and full scale Monte Carlo simulations one can estimate the source term activity for some tracer elements such as 134Cs, 137Cs, 60Co, etc. The uncertainty of this estimation should not be bigger than a factor of 2–3.
ISSN:0144-8420
1742-3406
DOI:10.1093/rpd/nci253