Worldwide measurements of radioxenon background near isotope production facilities, a nuclear power plant and at remote sites: the “EU/JA-II” Project

Saey, Paul R. J.; Ringbom, Anders; Bowyer, Ted W.; Zähringer, Matthias; Auer, Matthias; Faanhof, A.; Labuschagne, Casper; Al-Rashidi, Mufreh; Tippawan, U.; Verboomen, Bernard

doi:10.1007/s10967-012-2025-2

Cited by 19 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Although marked peaks are apparent from release of the 37 Ar accumulated in the fuel rod gap and plenum, both when the defect develops and after a power transient, their concentrations in stack emissions are negligibly small and do not produce any detectable 37 Ar background within the atmosphere. This is a marked difference from xenon emissions of nuclear power reactors, which for its major radioactive isotope 133 Xe mainly result from fuel rod defects (Lewis et al, 1997), notably after reactor shutdown when the noble gas retention systems are bypassed (Saey et al, 2013). This discrepancy results from the fact that the concentration of calcium as the precursor of 37 Ar in the fuel is limited to trace levels (5 ppm) producing a small equilibrium activity of 1.7 • 10 6 Bq kg −1 compared to the high yield fission product 133 Xe with an equilibrium inventory of 8.3 • 10 13 Bq kg −1 .…”

Section: Pathway (2): Activation Of Calcium In Fuelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Will $^{37}$Ar emissions from light water power reactors become an obstacle to its use for nuclear explosion monitoring?

Kirchner¹,

Gerfen²,

Heise³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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37 Ar is a promising candidate for complementing radioxenon isotopes as indicators of underground nuclear explosions. This study evaluates its potential anthropogenic background caused by emissions from commercial pressurised water reactors. Various 37 Ar production pathways, which result from activation of 36 Ar and of 40 Ca, respectively, are identified and their emissions quantified. In-core processes include (1) the restart of operation and degassing of the primary cooling water after maintenance and refueling shutdown, (2) the replacement of primary coolant water for limiting its tritium concentrations, and (3) the leakage of 37 Ar produced from calcium impurities in UO 2 after fuel rod failures. Activation of air and of calcium in concrete within the biological shield are major out-of-core production pathways. Whereas emissions from in-core processes are transient, a rather constant 37 Ar source term results from its out-of-core production.

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Section: Pathway (2): Activation Of Calcium In Fuelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Will $^{37}$Ar emissions from light water power reactors become an obstacle to its use for nuclear explosion monitoring?

Kirchner¹,

Gerfen²,

Heise³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…INGE has continued to meet on an annual basis and it is now in a third phase. A recent paper discusses detailed monitoring designed to measure the releases of radioxenon (Saey et al, 2012). One of the radioxenon measurement systems used for INGE was deployed in Pasar Jumat, Indonesia, near the BaTek medical isotope production facility associated with the G.A.…”

Section: International Noble Gas Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Source term estimates of radioxenon released from the BaTek medical isotope production facility using external measured air concentrations

Eslinger

Cameron

Dumais

et al. 2015

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

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BATAN Teknologi (BaTek) operates an isotope production facility in Serpong, Indonesia that supplies (99m)Tc for use in medical procedures. Atmospheric releases of (133)Xe in the production process at BaTek are known to influence the measurements taken at the closest stations of the radionuclide network of the International Monitoring System (IMS). The purpose of the IMS is to detect evidence of nuclear explosions, including atmospheric releases of radionuclides. The major xenon isotopes released from BaTek are also produced in a nuclear explosion, but the isotopic ratios are different. Knowledge of the magnitude of releases from the isotope production facility helps inform analysts trying to decide if a specific measurement result could have originated from a nuclear explosion. A stack monitor deployed at BaTek in 2013 measured releases to the atmosphere for several isotopes. The facility operates on a weekly cycle, and the stack data for June 15-21, 2013 show a release of 1.84 × 10(13) Bq of (133)Xe. Concentrations of (133)Xe in the air are available at the same time from a xenon sampler located 14 km from BaTek. An optimization process using atmospheric transport modeling and the sampler air concentrations produced a release estimate of 1.88 × 10(13) Bq. The same optimization process yielded a release estimate of 1.70 × 10(13) Bq for a different week in 2012. The stack release value and the two optimized estimates are all within 10% of each other. Unpublished production data and the release estimate from June 2013 yield a rough annual release estimate of 8 × 10(14) Bq of (133)Xe in 2014. These multiple lines of evidence cross-validate the stack release estimates and the release estimates based on atmospheric samplers.

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“…One example of an earlier study of atmospheric radioxenon releases from a nuclear power plant can be found in (Saey et al 2013). Another, more extreme case, is the large xenon release from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in 2011, where almost the whole xenon inventory was released (see Eslinger et al 2014 and references therein).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radioxenon Releases from A Nuclear Power Plant: Stack Data and Atmospheric Measurements

Ringbom

Axelsson

Björnham

et al. 2020

Pure Appl. Geophys.

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An analysis of a data set consisting of 3 years of high time resolution radioxenon stack measurements from the three nuclear reactors at the Forsmark nuclear power plant in Sweden, as well as measurements of atmospheric radioxenon in Stockholm air, 110 km away, is presented. The main causes for the stack releases, such as the function of the xenon mitigation systems, presence of leaking fuel elements, and reactor operations such as shutdown and startup, are discussed in relation to the stack data. The relation between radioxenon releases and reactor operation is clearly illustrated by the correlation between the stack measurements and thermal reactor power. In general, the isotopic ratios of the Stockholm measurements, which are shown to mainly originate from Forsmark releases, agree well with stack measurements, and with a modeled reactor operational sequence. Results from a forward atmospheric dispersion calculation agree very well with observed plume arrival times and widths, and with some exceptions, also with absolute activity concentrations. The results illustrates the importance of detailed knowledge of radioxenon emissions from nuclear power plants when interpreting radioxenon measurements for nuclear test ban verification, and provide new input to this kind of analysis. Furthermore, it demonstrates the possibility to use sensitive radioxenon detection systems to remotely detect and verify reactor operation.

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Worldwide measurements of radioxenon background near isotope production facilities, a nuclear power plant and at remote sites: the “EU/JA-II” Project

Cited by 19 publications

References 11 publications

Will $^{37}$Ar emissions from light water power reactors become an obstacle to its use for nuclear explosion monitoring?

Will $^{37}$Ar emissions from light water power reactors become an obstacle to its use for nuclear explosion monitoring?

Source term estimates of radioxenon released from the BaTek medical isotope production facility using external measured air concentrations

Radioxenon Releases from A Nuclear Power Plant: Stack Data and Atmospheric Measurements

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