Radiochemical Sensor for Continuous and Remote Liquid Effluents Monitoring
- Departament de Quimica Analitica. Facultat de Quimica. Universitat de Barcelona (Spain)
- Serveis Cientifico-Tecnics. Universitat de Barcelona. Sole Sabaris Barcelona (Spain)
On-line radioactivity monitoring in liquid effluents is an increasing need according to the international regulations at present. Classical activity determination procedures include the sequence of sampling, chemical treatment, measurement and data treatment. These steps are man-power consuming, generate a great amount of waste and introduce an important delay between the potential pollution event and its detection and quantification. To overcome these limitations, we have developed a radiochemical sensor for liquid effluents capable of sending information about the specific activity and volume of a contamination episode to a remote position, on line and continuously. The capabilities of the sensor developed here allow detecting and quantifying contamination pulses of alpha, beta and gamma emitters of different volumes and activity levels included in a continuous stream. Sensor receptor includes two detection systems, one addressed to determine alpha, beta and gamma events and the other to detect sample gamma emissions. Detailed sensor structure will be shown at the conference because patent is in process at this moment. Detection efficiencies (%) obtained in the alpha-beta-gamma system for the range of contamination volumes considered (2- 300 ml) are: 1.6 - 3.2%, for Pu-240; 22.2 - 58.4%, for Sr-90/Y-90 and 8.8 -17.7%, for Cs-134. In the gamma system, values for Cs-134 detection range from 0.6% to 1.3%. Prediction errors obtained show that sensor is capable to detect Sr-90/Y-90 contamination pulses of at least 2 ml and 3 Bq/ml with a relative error lower of 10% in activity and 60% in volume. When contamination pulse increases up to 7 ml, relative errors decrease to 5% for both magnitudes. For Pu-240 and Cs-134, when contamination pulses are of at least 7 ml and 300 Bq/ml, the relative errors obtained in determinations performed in the alpha-beta-gamma system are lower than 10% in activity and 20 % in volume. The same errors are obtained in the gamma system for Cs-134 when contamination pulses are higher than 7 ml and activities up to 1300 Bq/ml. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9 - 332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21326083
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-10-WM-08223; TRN: US10V0469067448
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM'08: Waste Management Symposium 2008 - HLW, TRU, LLW/ILW, Mixed, Hazardous Wastes and Environmental Management - Phoenix Rising: Moving Forward in Waste Management, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 24-28 Feb 2008; Other Information: Country of input: France; 20 refs
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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