International Noble Gas joint measurement at Mutsu City, Aomori for CTBT verification

Kijima, Yuichi ; Yamamoto, Yoichi ; Oda, Tetsuzo

The International Noble Gas Experiment related to monitoring network for radioactive noble gas (xenon) has been carried out all over the world, as part of the International Monitoring System (IMS) of CTBT. Thirty IMS radionuclide stations including the Takasaki station in Japan are monitoring radioxenon. The past measurement results show that several stations often detect radioxenon and the major emission source of these radioxenon is medical radioisotope production facilities. And nuclear power plants and medical institutions used radioxenon for nuclear medicine diagnosis, and so on are also considered as the possible sources of radioxenon, and it is therefore important to understand the background behavior of radioxenon originated from above facilities for enhancement of monitoring capability for nuclear tests. The international joint measurement was conducted in 2012 by the Preparatory Commission for the CTBT Organization, US Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Japan Chemical Analysis Center and JAEA at the Ohminato site of JAEA Aomori Research and Development Center in Mutsu city, Aomori, as part of investigation on radioxenon background in East Asia region. In 2014, the additional measurement was carried out at the same place for further investigation. A high sensitive Transportable Xenon Laboratory developed by PNNL was used for this measurement. This paper describes the outline and the results of the joint measurement conducted in 2012 and 2014.