Progress of Cryogenics and Isotopes Separation , ISSN: 1582-2575
2011, Volume 14, Issue 2

An Evaluation Method for Potentially Package’s Non-Fixed Radioactive Contamination in Transport of Radioactive Waste

Ramona Mihaiu * , Gheorghe Vieru , Viorica Nistor

Reliability and Testing Laboratory, Institute for Nuclear Research, 0300 Pitesti, P.O. Box 78, Romania

*Corresponding author: Ramona Mihaiu, E-mail: ramonamaria.m@gmail.com

Published: October 2011


Abstract

Packages to be used for transport and storage of Radioactive Materials (RAM) may routinely or inadvertently become contaminated with radioactive substances in the form of fixed (non-removable) or non-fixed (removable) surface contamination during transport.

The non-fixed radioactive contaminants may subsequently be transferred, from external surface of the package to the equipment, trucks, train and transport personnel or to the environment areas accessible to the public.

The IAEA Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material, TS-R-1 prescribe certain limits (in units of Bq/cm2) for fixed and non-fixed contamination on the surfaces of packages or shipments.

Within the Reliability and Testing Laboratory of INR Pitesti there is now available a High-Purity Germanium Detector System-HPGe, of high performance having possibilities to analyze and to evaluate the non-fixed contamination limits for radioactive waste packages.

The paper presents a method to evaluate and control the non-fixed contamination values, according to the national regulations and following the recommendations of the IAEA Standard, particularly for a type A package used for transport and storage of radioactive waste to the National Repository (DNDR) Baita Bihor.


Keywords

Non-fixed contamination, spectrometry, method of analysis.


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