A rapid method for analysis of radioactive waste for the presence of fuel matrix components

Abstract

The presence of large amounts of ¹³⁷Cs and ⁹⁰Sr radionuclides in radioactive waste severely complicates its analysis for the presence of fuel matrix components. Labor-consuming procedures for determining uranium and plutonium radionuclides in soils and water are hardly applicable in this case. A rapid method based on these procedures was developed for determining fuel matrix components in both liquid and solid radioactive waste. The procedure was tested in the course of works on dismantling the MR reactor of the National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute. Samples of water, bottom slime, and deposits on the walls of ponds in the central room of the MR reactor and of deposits from the dismantled active drain system were analyzed.