Application of Spectrometric Gamma-Logging for Specification of Characteristics of Soil Radioactive Pollutions

Abstract

The experience of using the method of spectrometric gamma-logging of wells for assessment of radioactive contamination of soils on the sites of foundation pits excavation for the New Safe Confinement foundations is presented in the article. Analysis of the photopic/Compton ratio in the gamma-ray spectra of the wellbore allowed us to identify the types of soil contamination: the volumetric contamination, which is associated with real radioactive contamination, and the surface contamination, which is identified as introduced by drilling. This task is especially relevant for determining the boundaries of contaminated/clean soils, which had an impact on determining the depth of pits and, as a result, on the volume of soils to be developed. The use of spectrometric gammalogging of wells made it possible to correctly predict the categories and volumes of radioactive waste, which were soil to be extracted during excavation. Directions for further improvement of the method of spectrometric gamma-logging to clarify the characteristics of radioactive waste are considered in the article.