Environmental Applications of Stable Xenon and Radioxenon Monitoring
Improved detection capabilities are needed at several Department of Energy sites to make remedial decisions about facilities and landfill cleanup. For facility monitoring air samples can be collected from within a facility and analyzed for short lived radioxenons to estimate inventories of residual plutonium holdup within the facility. For landfill cleanup activities soil gas sampling for xenon isotopes can be used to define the locations of spent fuel and transuranic wastes. Short-lived radioxenon isotopes are continuously produced by spontaneous fission of plutonium-240 in transuranic wastes. Large volume soil-gas samples provide extremely sensitive measurement of radioxenon in the subsurface; a characteristic of transuranic waste. The analysis employs a modified Automated Radioxenon Sampling and Analysis (ARSA) system. Proof of principle measurements at a Hanford Site liquid waste disposal site showed xenon-133 at levels in soil gas are approximately 16,000 times the detection limit and lower levels of xenon-135 from the spontaneous fission of plutonium-240 were also measured. Stable xenon isotopes are also produced by spontaneous fission but are subject to background concentrations in ambient air samples (facilities) but less so in soil gas where free exchange with ambient air is restricted. Rare gas mass spectrometry is used for highly precise stable xenon isotopic measurements. Stable xenon isotopic ratios from fission are distinct from natural xenon background ratios. Neutron capture on xenon-135 produces an excess of xenon-136 above fission ratios and thus provides a means of distinguishing reactor sources (e.g. spent fuel) from separated transuranic materials (plutonium).
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 936197
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-56695; JRNCDM; NN2003000; TRN: US0805460
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 276(3):763-769, Vol. 276, Issue 3; ISSN 0236-5731
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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