An Autoradiographical method using an imaging plate for the analyses of plutonium contamination in a plutonium handling facility

Takasaki, Koji  ; Sagawa, Naoki; Kurosawa, Shigeyuki; Mizuniwa, Harumi

An autoradiographical method using an imaging plate (IP) was developed to analyze the plutonium contamination in the plutonium handling facility and was applied to the monitoring of the workplace in a practical uranium-plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility. A good relationship between the photo stimulated luminescence (PSL) intensities of IP and radioactivities measured by a radiation counter was obtained by the least-square fitting, taking the fading effect into consideration. The -radioactivities of plutonium contamination were derived from the PSL image in this IP method, and their relative errors were evaluated from exposure time.