Saey Paul R J, Bowyer Theodore W, Ringbom Anders
Vienna University of Technology, Atomic Institute of the Austrian Universities, Stadionallee 2, Vienna, Austria.
Appl Radiat Isot. 2010 Sep;68(9):1846-54. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2010.04.014. Epub 2010 Apr 24.
Radioxenon isotopes play a major role in confirming whether or not an underground explosion was nuclear in nature. It is then of key importance to understand the sources of environmental radioxenon to be able to distinguish civil sources from those of a nuclear explosion. Based on several years of measurements, combined with advanced atmospheric transport model results, it was recently shown that the main source of radioxenon observations are strong and regular batch releases from a very limited number of medical isotope production facilities. This paper reviews production processes in different medical isotope facilities during which radioxenon is produced. Radioxenon activity concentrations and isotopic compositions are calculated for six large facilities. The results are compared with calculated signals from nuclear explosions. Further, the outcome is compared and found to be consistent with radioxenon measurements recently performed in and around three of these facilities. Some anomalies in measurements in which (131m)Xe was detected were found and a possible explanation is proposed. It was also calculated that the dose rate of the releases is well below regulatory values. Based on these results, it should be possible to better understand, interpret and verify signals measured in the noble gas measurement systems in the International Monitoring of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
放射性氙同位素在确定地下爆炸是否为核爆炸性质方面发挥着重要作用。因此，了解环境放射性氙的来源对于区分民用来源和核爆炸来源至关重要。基于数年的测量，并结合先进的大气传输模型结果，最近发现放射性氙观测的主要来源是极少数医用同位素生产设施的强烈且定期的批量释放。本文回顾了不同医用同位素设施中产生放射性氙的生产过程。计算了六个大型设施的放射性氙活度浓度和同位素组成。将结果与核爆炸计算信号进行比较。此外，将结果进行比较并发现与最近在其中三个设施及其周边进行的放射性氙测量结果一致。发现了一些检测到（131m）Xe的测量异常情况，并提出了一种可能的解释。还计算出释放的剂量率远低于监管值。基于这些结果，应该能够更好地理解、解释和验证《全面禁止核试验条约》国际监测中惰性气体测量系统测得的信号。
