Rapid estimation of /sup 226/Ra in soil for the Grand Junction RASA/UMTRA project
The Radiological Survey Activities (RASA) Group of the Health and Safety Research Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is an Inclusion Survey Contractor (ISC) for the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Program (UMTRAP). The purpose of the ISC is to survey designated sites potentially contaminated with radioactive material originating from the 24 inactive uranium mill sites and make recommendations as to whether the site should be included in or excluded from further consideration by UMTRAP. An important aspect of the program is a prompt and inexpensive estimation of Radium-226 (/sup 226/Ra) concentration in soil samples. A large sodium iodide (NaI) well crystal coupled to a multichannel analyzer is used to count soil samples. Count data are currently analyzed with an algorithm that utilizes three regions of interest (ROI). A lack of agreement was observed when samples were also analyzed with lithium-drifted germanium (GeLi) spectrometers. The average estimate of /sup 226/Ra obtained using the current algorithm was 19% greater than the GeLi determination. Some possible reasons for these differences were examined. In 8.5% of the samples, the relative concentration of Cesium-137 (/sup 137/Cs) was highly correlated to the extent of error. Using alternative analysis techniques, the error for /sup 226/Ra estimations may be reduced by a factor of 2 for randomly selected samples and by a factor of 4 for samples containing high concentrations of /sup 137/Cs relative to the concentrations of /sup 226/Ra. 9 refs., 4 figs., 3 tabs.
- Research Organization:
- Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins (USA); Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 6244660
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-860203-8; ON: DE86006206
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 19. midyear topical symposium on health physics considerations in decontamination and decommissioning, Knoxville, TN, USA, 2 Feb 1986; Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
RADIUM 226
SPECTROSCOPY
SOILS
RADIOACTIVITY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
MILL TAILINGS
REMEDIAL ACTION
ALKALINE EARTH ISOTOPES
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
DATA
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
HEAVY NUCLEI
INFORMATION
ISOTOPES
NUCLEI
NUMERICAL DATA
RADIOISOTOPES
RADIUM ISOTOPES
SOLID WASTES
TAILINGS
WASTES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
400104* - Spectral Procedures- (-1987)
054000 - Nuclear Fuels- Health & Safety