Raman system for radioactive waste materials in a hot cell
- Westinghouse Hanford Co., Richland, WA (United States); and others
A remote, fiber-optic Raman system is being developed for the chemical characterization of Hanford Site high-level radioactive wastes. These wastes resulted from the chemical processing of nuclear weapons material during the years 1943 through 1987; the wastes are stored in underground storage tanks. Hanford Site cleanup and restoration are the major drivers for the development of the Raman work described in this paper. The Raman system uses a remote, fiber-optic probe with radiation resistant optical fibers. A {open_quotes}mash{close_quote} probe, with two optical fibers and a sensing tip finished in a chisel shape, was used to obtain Raman data from real tank material and simulants. Selection of the Raman system components and design of the fiber optic probe were based upon comparison data from various probe designs and the results of radiation-damage tests on optical fibers. The chemical and physical characteristics of Hanford Site tank wastes were also factors in designing the remote Raman system. Reference spectra have been obtained from a number of pure materials that are suspected to be in the tank wastes. Detection limits for ferrocyanide species in simulated tank waste will be presented. Additional spectra obtained from archived samples of actual tank waste will be presented; these spectra demonstrate the feasibility of using fiber-optic Raman spectroscopy to remotely characterize tank waste materials both in the hot cell and in the waste tank itself. The U.S. Department of Energy`s Office of Technology Development, Underground Storage Tank, Integrated Demonstration and Tank Waste Remediation Systems programs funded this work.
- OSTI ID:
- 191681
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-941098-; TRN: 95:006733-0037
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: FACSS XXI: 21st annual conference of the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (FACSS), St. Louis, MO (United States), 2-7 Oct 1994; Other Information: PBD: 1994; Related Information: Is Part Of 21st annual conference of the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies; PB: 257 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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