Combined determination of 99Tc and 108mAg in L/ILW liquid wastes

• Published in: Journal of radioanalytical and nuclear chemistry Vol. 286; no. 3; pp. 759 - 763
• Main Authors: Bihari, Arpad, Szucs, Zoltan, Mogyorosi, Magdolna, Pinter, Tamas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.12.2010
• Subjects: Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Diagnostic Radiology; Hadrons; Heavy Ions; Inorganic Chemistry; Nuclear Chemistry; Nuclear Physics; Physical Chemistry; Low- and intermediate-activity level liquid wastes; Separation methods; Ag; Tc
• ISSN: 0236-5731; 1588-2780
• DOI: 10.1007/s10967-010-0718-y

The low- and intermediate-activity level liquid wastes produced by the Paks Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) contain routinely measureable gamma-emitting (e.g., 54 Mn, 60 Co, 110m Ag, and 137 Cs) as well as many so-called “difficult-to-measure” radionuclides. Despite of their low specific activity compared to the total, the reliable determination of these radionuclides is an important issue of nuclear waste management. The increasing amount of waste samples to be qualified yearly by our laboratory put a pressure on revising the existing procedure of 99 Tc separation applied. We have managed to halve the initial amount of the sample required to achieve the same level of detection of technetium. Furthermore, one of the new purifying steps introduced have proved to be able to separate 108m Ag (and 110m Ag) better than 99% keeping the 99 Tc content of the product almost intact. Means of separation of 99 Tc from 106 Ru and 124+125 Sb have also been successfully investigated. As intended, this new procedure has a major impact on the chemical reagent as well as the electricity requirement of the separation making it more cost-effective.