Harbron Richard, Charousset Renaud, Dumont Gerald, Magistris Matteo, Menaa Nabil, Giunio Pisano Paolo, Theis Christian
Radiation Protection Group, European Organization for Nuclear Research, 1211, Geneva, 23, Switzerland.
Appl Radiat Isot. 2023 Jun;196:110782. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2023.110782. Epub 2023 Mar 21.
Burnable waste produced at CERN during upgrading, maintenance and dismantling campaigns may be contaminated with radioactive nuclides produced through activation of accelerator components. Here, we present a methodology for the radiological characterisation of burnable waste, which takes into account the wide range of potential activation conditions (beam energy, material composition, location, irradiation and waiting time). Waste packages are measured using a total gamma counter, with the sum of clearance limit fractions estimated using the fingerprint method. Gamma spectroscopy was found to be unsuitable for classifying this waste due to the long counting times required to identify many expected nuclides, but was retained for quality control purposes. Using this methodology, a pilot campaign was performed in which we were able to clear 13 m of burnable waste as conventional non-radioactive waste.
欧洲核子研究中心在升级、维护和拆除活动期间产生的可燃废物可能会被加速器部件活化产生的放射性核素污染。在此，我们提出一种可燃废物放射性特征描述方法，该方法考虑了广泛的潜在活化条件（束流能量、材料成分、位置、辐照和等待时间）。使用总γ计数器对废物包进行测量，使用指纹法估算豁免限值分数之和。由于识别许多预期核素需要很长的计数时间，发现γ能谱法不适用于对此类废物进行分类，但为质量控制目的仍予保留。使用该方法开展了一项试点活动，在此活动中我们能够将13米可燃废物作为常规非放射性废物清除。
