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Improvement of 94Nb analytical sensitivity in radioactive dry active waste with sequential chemical separation

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Abstract

To achieve permanent disposal of radioactive waste drums, the radionuclides analysis process is essential. A variety of waste types are generated through the operation of nuclear facilities, with dry active waste being the most abundant. To perform radionuclides analysis, sample pre-treatment technology is required to transform solid samples into solutions. In this study, we developed a dry ashing-microwave digestion method and secured the reliability of the analysis results through a validity evaluation. Additionally, we conducted a comparative analysis of the radioactivity of 94Nb nuclides with and without the chemical separation process, which reduced the minimum detectable activity level by more than 65-fold for a certain sample.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Nuclear Power Plant Decommissioning Technology Development Program (Project No. 77873-23) of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP). Sequential separation experiments were supported by the KAERI Institutional Program (Project No. 521320-23).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 111, Daedeok-Daero 989 Beon-Gil, Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon, 34057, Republic of Korea

    Jung Bo Yoo, Kyunghun Jung, Kwang-Soon Choi, Jungweon Choi, Gi Yong Kim, Simon Oh, Hyojin An, Jihyun Kim & Minyoung Jung

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  1. Jung Bo Yoo
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  2. Kyunghun Jung
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  3. Kwang-Soon Choi
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  4. Jungweon Choi
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  5. Gi Yong Kim
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  6. Simon Oh
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  7. Hyojin An
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  8. Jihyun Kim
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  9. Minyoung Jung
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Correspondence to Jung Bo Yoo.

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Yoo, J.B., Jung, K., Choi, KS. et al. Improvement of 94Nb analytical sensitivity in radioactive dry active waste with sequential chemical separation. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 332, 4291–4300 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-023-09116-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-023-09116-8

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