Development of a Radioactive Sorting and Volume Reduction System for Radioactive Contaminated Sandy Soil Using...

Area of Science:

• Nuclear Engineering
• Environmental Science
• Radiation Detection

Background:

• Radioactively contaminated sandy soil is a significant challenge in nuclear facility decommissioning and accident response.
• Efficient sorting and volume reduction are essential for waste minimization and cost reduction in remediation efforts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design, develop, and validate a radiation measurement system for rapid sorting and volume reduction of contaminated sandy soil.
• To improve the accuracy and efficiency of radioactive soil characterization for waste management.

Main Methods:

• Development of a radiation measurement system utilizing a large-volume plastic scintillator and a NaI array detector.
• Implementation of differential measurement for net radioactive count rate determination.
• Employing programmable gain control and temperature stabilization for enhanced energy spectrum stability.

Main Results:

• Plastic scintillator arrays achieved dynamic background subtraction within 1.8 seconds, with net count rate errors below 10%.
• The NaI detector array demonstrated energy resolution better than 8% at 662 keV and minimal peak channel drift.
• Rapid activity measurements for 241Am and 137Cs sources showed errors below 10%, meeting technical requirements.

Conclusions:

• The developed radiation measurement system effectively supports sandy soil separation and volume reduction.
• The system provides a reliable methodological reference for engineering applications in radioactive waste management.
• Findings contribute to optimizing nuclear decommissioning and accident response strategies.