Distribution of 14C and 3H in low level radioactive wastes generated by wet waste streams from pressurized water reactors

Summary It is impossible to detect ¹⁴C and ³H by direct methods such as γ-spectroscopy because they are pure b-emitters and thus they are classified as hard to measure nuclides (HTM). In this paper the analysis results of ¹⁴C and ³H in the low level radioactive wastes (LLWs), including spent ion exchange resin, evaporated bottom and sludge are presented. The LLWs were generated by three nuclear power plants (NPPs), in Korea all with pressurized water type reactors (PWRs). A simultaneous separation procedure for ¹⁴C and ³H in LLWs was established by wet oxidation-acid stripping. A liquid scintillation analyzer was used for the measurement of ¹⁴C and ³H. It was found that the recovery of ¹⁴C and ³H was 82-99 and 78-103%, respectively, by wet oxidation-acid stripping with diluted standard solutions. At the lowest injection of ¹⁴C and ³H, i.e., at 1.44 Bq for ¹⁴C and 1.22 Bq for ³H, the minimum detectable activity (MDA) of ¹⁴C and ³H was calculated as 0.88 and 0.78 Bq/g, respectively, for the minimum allowable sample weight, using wet oxidation and 16 wt% H₂SO₄ acid. By the wet oxidation-16 wt% H₂SO₄ stripping method no interfering nuclides were detected in the trapping solution of ¹⁴CO₂ and the distillate of ³H. The activity concentration range of ¹⁴C in the analyzed samples, i.e., spent ion exchange resin, evaporated bottom and sludge, was 0.17-110,000, 8.4-1380 and 0.1-10,006 Bq/g, respectively, and that of ³H in the same was from no detectable to 769, 134-14,383 and 0.7-4820 Bq/g, respectively.