Accurate measurement of 55 Fe in radioactive waste
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Accurate measurement of 55Fe in radioactive waste Céline Gautier1 · Elodie Laporte1 · Gabriel Lambrot1 · Margaux Giuliani1 · Christèle Colin1 · Jacques Bubendorff1 · Marielle Crozet2 · Caroline Mougel1 Received: 14 May 2020 © Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2020
Abstract A radiochemical method was developed for the accurate 55Fe determination in various radioactive waste, in particular samples contaminated with 241Pu. It consisted of three purification steps based on first ammonium hydroxide precipitation, and then anion exchange separation followed by TRU®-based extraction chromatography. It was characterized by an iron recovery yield of about 80% for all the studied samples and a 60Co decontamination factor of 1 06. In comparison to a standard protocol based on iron cupferrate extraction in chloroform, an improvement of a 30-fold factor was achieved towards plutonium. The developed TRU®-based procedure was validated by participating in interlaboratory exercises. Keywords 55Fe · 241Pu · Radiochemical analysis · Liquid scintillation counting · Extraction chromatography · Radioactive waste · Waste contaminated with actinides · Cupferron · Decommissioning
Introduction By 2050, more than half of the world nuclear capacity is scheduled to be shut down for decommissioning and dismantling (D&D). As a consequence, high volumes of radioactive waste are already and will be produced in the future while their management and characterization is a key issue to be studied. With a half-life of 2.747 years (± 8) [1], 55Fe is one of the radionuclides contributing mostly to the inventory of radioactivity in nuclear waste at the beginning of the storage, thus it has to be analyzed accurately. 55Fe is produced by neutron activation of stable iron which can be contained in numerous materials used in the nuclear fuel cycle, especially in metallic components [2]. Therefore, 55Fe was measured in various radioactive waste samples, in particular metals (aluminum, lead, steel) [3–7], concretes [3], graphites [3, 5], resins [4, 8], sludges [4], effluents and waste waters [8–11]. 55 Fe disintegrates by electron capture to 55Mn with the emission of Auger electrons and X-rays (5.89, 5.90 and * Céline Gautier [email protected] 1
Des ‑ Service d’Etudes Analytiques et de Réactivité des Surfaces (SEARS), CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191 Gif‑sur‑Yvette, France
CETAMA, CEA, DES, ISEC, DMRC, Univ Montpellier, Marcoule, France
2
6.51 keV) [1]. Moreover, it emits gamma rays suitable for gamma spectrometry detection, but the latter have low intensity (around 10− 7 % [1]), which is often not consistent with the sensitivity required for the characterization of low and intermediate level radioactive waste. Based on its characteristic X-rays, 55Fe was also determined with a moderate sensitivity by applying Si detectors [2] or gaseous detectors such as proportional chambers or Micropattern Gaseous Detectors (MPGD) [6]. X spectrometry [8, 10] and more particularly liquid scintillation counting (LSC) [3, 5, 7–11] are widely used for
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