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Title: Remotely operable sample-taking appliance, especially for ascertaining radioactivity profiles in contaminated material surfaces

Patent ·
OSTI ID:5557093

A sample-taking appliance comprises several sensors arranged on a turntable like sensor carrier in such a manner that the application areas of the small sensor sponges decrease stepwise from the first to the last sensor. By simple rotation of the turntable the sensors can be brought successively into a working position. The sensor carrier is preferably accommodated in a housing which is open at the bottom and which is raisable and lowerable in the frame of the appliance by, for example, a threaded spindle. The threaded spindle is driven by an electric motor. For each sampling the sensor carrier is lowered until the cell voltage corresponds to a predetermined desired value. This produces sufficiently precise and reproductible measured values of the electrolytic current for ascertaining the removed layer thickness. The appliance makes it possible to take material samples even from locations of high radiation loading. The material layers removed as samples lie concentrically above each other so that the graduation of the application areas comes into full effect and the material samples taken by the small sponges and the radioactivity contained therein are not falsified.

Assignee:
Gesellschaft zur Forderung der Forschung an der Eidgenossischen Technischen Hochschule(Switzerland)
Patent Number(s):
US 4405430
OSTI ID:
5557093
Resource Relation:
Patent Priority Date: Priority date 20 Mar 1980, Switzerland; Other Information: PAT-APPL-243557
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English