Calorimeter measurement of the heat released by irradiated nuclear fuel

Classical radionuclidic calorimetry

“…In addition to the determination of the activity of radionuclides, calorimetry has had many other uses within the discipline of radioactivity. Only a few examples will be cited, but these applications include calorimetry's use for the determination of: half-lives, such as that for 3 H [29], 14 C [30], 210 Po [31], 147 Pm [32] and 226 Ra on many occasions [33]; average beta decay energies, such as for 3 H [29, 34], 14 C [30] or 147 Pm [32]; alpha emission energies, such as for 239 Pu [35]; and burn-up of nuclear fuels [36,37]. For the past few decades, calorimetry has been mainly used for the assay of tritium and special nuclear materials in the nuclear-power and -weapons industries and for fusion technology [38][39][40][41].…”