Production of 37Ar in The University of Texas TRIGA reactor facility

A Noble Gas Migration Experiment injected 127 Xe, 37 Ar, and sulfur hexafluoride into a former underground nuclear explosion shot cavity. These tracer gases were allowed to migrate from the cavity to near-surface and surface sampling locations and were detected in soil gas samples collected using various on-site inspection sampling approaches. Based on this experiment we came to the following conclusions: (1) SF 6 was enriched in all of the samples relative to both 37 Ar and 127 Xe. (2) There were no significant differences in the 127 Xe to 37 Ar ratio in the samples relative to the ratio injected into the cavity. (3) The migratory behavior of the chemical and radiotracers did not fit typical diffusion modeling scenarios.

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“…The method used to create the radioactive noble gases is based on previous work at The University of Texas at Austin [4][5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Noble gas migration experiment to support the detection of underground nuclear explosions

Olsen

Kirkham

Woods

et al. 2015

J Radioanal Nucl Chem

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“…The University of Texas at Austin Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory (NETL) has produced 37 Ar through gas activation [5] in a manner similar to the established radioxenon production procedure [6,7]. This method entails the irradiation of 0.58 cm 3 of natural argon gas contained in a Teflon valve in the 3L in-core canister.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Irradiating natural argon gas via this method produced a small amount of 37 Ar with minimal impurities after the 41 Ar had decayed with a 109 minute half-life. In order to produce a pure 37 Ar, the use of enriched 36 Ar gas could be used [5,8]. The irradiation of an enriched gas will also provide a larger induced activity of the desired radioargon isotope with minimal impurities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radioargon production through the irradiation of calcium oxide

Egnatuk

Biegalski

2013

J Radioanal Nucl Chem

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The production of radioargon through the irradiation of CaO was performed in an in-core facility within the The University of Texas at Austin MARK II TRIGA reactor. The major radioargon isotope produced was 37 Ar via the 40 Ca(n,α) 37 Ar reaction pathway. The CaO powder was vacuumed sealed in a quartz ampoule. The sample was irradiated in a Cd-lined Al alloy canister for 2 hours at 500 kW. After the irradiation, the sample was counted using an HPGe detector five times with increasing count times. 41

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Large volume gas irradiation procedure developed at The University of Texas at Austin

Egnatuk

Biegalski

2012

J Radioanal Nucl Chem

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Production of 37Ar in The University of Texas TRIGA reactor facility

Cited by 12 publications

References 4 publications

Noble gas migration experiment to support the detection of underground nuclear explosions

Noble gas migration experiment to support the detection of underground nuclear explosions

Radioargon production through the irradiation of calcium oxide

Large volume gas irradiation procedure developed at The University of Texas at Austin

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