Examination of local atmospheric transport of radioxenon in the Ottawa River Valley

Abstract

Concentrations of the radioxenon isotopes 133 Xe and 135 Xe were measured as they were released from the stack at the Chalk River medical isotope production facility and were then measured at various sites in the Ottawa River Valley. Dispersion modeling was then used to model the local transport of these radioxenon isotopes between the production facility and the sampling locations. The ratio of 135 Xe/ 133 Xe was also examined using an ORIGEN-ARP model was used to understand what factors played a role in the 135 Xe/ 133 Xe ratio at the time of release by considering irradiation time, flux, and decay time prior to fractionation.

Detection in subsurface air of radioxenon released from medical isotope production

“…In order to validate the predictions of imprinting, a sampling campaign was performed near the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories medical isotope production facility, the world's largest source of atmospheric 133 Xe. An analysis of the stack release data and atmospheric transport of the radioxenon released from this site can be found in Johnson, et al (Johnson et al, 2015a).…”