Year
1983
Abstract
The capability of an existing segmented gammaray system is being expanded to greatly enhance its usefulness. A multienergy gamma-ray scan/ transmission measurement is a vital part of any waste assay system that must have the capability of quantifying a diverse list of isotopes within a single drum, including several transuranic species and longlived fission products. Such a system is being developed for the analysis of alpha-contaminated waste drums at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A cursory assay of 114 transuranic waste drums of 208-8, capacity has been made. A more thorough and systematic analysis is now being implemented. Analysis of these data indicates a detection limit better than 100 nCi/K of waste for the transuranic isotopes 237Np/ 233Pa> 239pu> 241Am> and 243Am/239Np> as well as the long-lived fission products 60Co, 125Sb, 134ยป137Cs, and l^Eu. A pending Code of Federal Regulation (10CFR61) stipulates that the nuclear industry quantify not only its transuranic waste, but also certain betaand gamma-ray-emitting fission products. An assay system based on gamma-ray spectroscopy is the only system that can meet this requirement for the fission products. Gamma-ray spectroscopy is also required to quantify and identify several transuranic isotopes.