Abstract: Different extent of radioactivity of low-level wastewater will be produced in production and application of nuclear fuel, which must be treated and tested before being discharged while the level of wastewater radionuclide meeting the relevant standards.

In this paper, we propose three methods for measuring the radioactivity level of uranium in low-level wastewater based on ultra-low level liquid scintillation spectrometer. It can easily and quickly measure the radioactivity level of uranium in samples, and even distinguish the main isotopes of uranium.

For uranium isotope samples with the same or similar composition and ratio to the natural uranium isotope, interconversion between two results based on low-level wastewater can be implemented if the former result with units of radioactivity specific activity is measured by liquid scintillation and the latter with units of mass concentration is measured by the laser-fluoremetry method, however, interconversion of results on above two measurement methods cannot be applied in low-level wastewater after uranium enrichment, because the proportion of isotopes with high specific activity in above wastewater, such as ^234^U and ^235^U, is significantly higher than that without enrichment. The measurement results in mass concentration units will underestimate the uranium radioactivity level of the sample.

The liquid flash method directly gives the results in units of radioactivity specific activity, and it is more convenient to compare with relevant national standards to determine whether the emission standards are met.

Key Words: Ultra-low level liquid scintillation analyzer; Uranium radioactivity level; Low-level wastewater; Nuclide identification


Uranium Radioactivity Measurement for Low-Level Wastewater Based on Ultra-Low Level Liquid Scintillation Analyzer

Division / Sponsors: 
Power Division & Nuclear Engineering Division (NED)

Power Conference
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/POWER/POWER2020/volume/83747

International Conference on Nuclear Engineering
Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ICONE/ICONE2020/volume/83761

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