Nondestructive analysis of difficult-to-measure radionuclides by TOF-PGA

Toh, Yosuke   ; Ebihara, Mitsuru*; Huang, M.; Kimura, Atsushi   ; Nakamura, Shoji  ; Harada, Hideo   

The determination of radioactivity is needed for each radioactive nuclide before nuclear waste can be accepted for storage and disposal or is recycled. The -ray measurement usually makes it possible to determine these of radioactive nuclides, because energies of rays are characteristic for each nuclide. However, the -ray measurement cannot apply to the pure alpha or beta emitters, which are called as Difficult-to-Measure (DTM) nuclides. Elements in a high-level liquid waste are separated into several groups; transuranium elements, platinum group metals (PGM), Sr-Cs and the others by the partitioning process. Among them, the PGM are required in wide variety of industrial applications such as catalysts, medical implants and electronics; however, PGM includes DTM radioisotopes. In order to improve the accuracy and sensitivity, we developed a non-destructive multi-elemental analytical technique (TOF-PGA). The feasibility study was conducted using TOF-PGA for analysis of DTM nuclides. The results indicate that TOF-PGA offers significant advantages of the determination of DTM nuclides.