The use and abuse of portable health physics instruments in characterizing radioactive waste
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN (United States)
- Westinghouse Savannah River, Aiken, SC (United States)
The traditional use of portable survey instruments for contamination control and protection against external exposure has been extended to include the quantification of radioactivity in waste. In some cases, this application is defensible and, in other cases, it can lead to grossly inaccurate results. This paper discusses the circumstances under which the use of survey meters is likely to provide acceptable results for the accurate determination of waste stream characteristics, including the choice of instrument, calibration and survey methodologies, and potential sources of measurement error. In practice, the specifics of an application determine whether acceptable results can be obtained. These considerations and present examples are examined and compared with regulatory requirements. The alternative use of nondestructive assay systems to more accurately measure the quantities of radioactivity in waste is also described and compared against quantification using portable survey instruments. The emphasis will be on waste generated at DOE national laboratories since such waste can have widely variable radioisotopic characteristics.
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-96OR22464
- OSTI ID:
- 393924
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9607135-; ISSN 0017-9078; TRN: 96:028605
- Journal Information:
- Health Physics, Vol. 70, Issue Suppl.6; Conference: 41. Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society, Seattle, WA (United States), 21-25 Jul 1996; Other Information: PBD: Jun 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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