On-line monitor for the detection of aerosols containing uranium and the transuranics

Conference · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1978

OSTI ID:6792586

Yule, T. J.

An extremely sensitive on-line monitor for alpha-emitting aerosols containing uranium and the transuranics has been developed. If the only alpha activity present were that associated with the decay of these aerosols, then monitoring for significant concentrations would be straightforward. There is, however, a naturally occurring source of alpha activity from the decay of radon and thoron daughter products. These background levels may be several orders of magnitude greater than the maximum permissible airborne concentration, MPC/sub a/, of the aerosol that is being monitored. The monitor that is described here incorporates discrimination against background activity that is based on two factors. Firstly, the background activity is associated with small-sized dust particles, while the aerosol to be monitored has most of its activity associated with large-sized particles. Secondly, the alpha energies from the two sources are different. The monitor utilizes virtual impactors to concentrate the large-sized particles into a flow that is a small fraction of the intake flow. The flow containing the large particles is then passed through a filter to collect the particles. The filter is viewed by a solid-state detector for alpha spectroscopy. The monitor is capable of detecting less than one MPC/sub a/ of soluble aerosols containing plutonium, 0.002 pCi/1, in less than one-half hour.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., Ill. (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-31-109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 6792586
• Report Number(s): CONF-780110-12; TRN: 78-014819
• Resource Relation: Conference: 11. symposium on radiation instrumentation, San Diego, CA, USA, 17 Jan 1978
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR SAMPLERS
DESIGN
RADIOACTIVE AEROSOLS
AEROSOL MONITORING
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
RADIATION MONITORING
URANIUM
ALPHA SOURCES
ALPHA SPECTROMETERS
BACKGROUND RADIATION
FILTERS
RADIATION MONITORS
SENSITIVITY
ACTINIDES
AEROSOLS
AIR POLLUTION MONITORS
COLLOIDS
DISPERSIONS
ELEMENTS
ION SOURCES
LABORATORY EQUIPMENT
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
METALS
MONITORING
PARTICLE SOURCES
RADIATION SOURCES
RADIATIONS
SAMPLERS
SOLS
SPECTROMETERS
440101* - Radiation Instrumentation- General Detectors or Monitors & Radiometric Instruments
500300 - Environment
Atmospheric- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)