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On-line measurement of stack gas particulate radionuclides

Conference · · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA)
OSTI ID:5334226
Stack gases from nuclear facilities can contain both natural and man-made radionuclides. Interferences from natural radon daughters limit the detection capability of common radiation measurement methods. An improved system using on-line multichannel analyzers, alpha energy spectroscopy, gamma-ray analysis, radon-compensated gross beta counting, and automated data reduction is presented. This system provides accurate determination of certain stack effluent fine particulates as air concentrations at or near the derived concentration guides alarms at preset levels. The system, the moving filter radioactive aerosol monitor (MFRAM), is an adaptation of the transuranic aerosol measurement system developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The MFRAM controls a high-temperature sample stream to minimize mass formations that degrades alpha spectroscopy results. It features an alpha energy analysis (AEA) algorithm for automatic internal energy calibration with resolution compensation and spectral peak extraction. The AEA program reports {sup 239}Pu, {sup 212}Bi, and {sup 212}Po as air concentrations; {sup 212}Po is used to compensate for the radon contribution to gross beta measurements. The resultant beta measurement is used to determine the long-lived radionuclide gross beta concentration.
OSTI ID:
5334226
Report Number(s):
CONF-871101--
Conference Information:
Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA) Journal Volume: 55:3
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English