Radiocarbon mass balance for a Magnox nuclear power station

Metcalfe, M.P.; Mills, Robert W.

doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2014.08.071

Cited by 20 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…However, the contributions from each precursor species are likely to differ due to variations in isotopic abundance and capture cross section, Table 1 . The contributions from each have been examined in the mass balance study of Wylfa Reactor 1 by Metcalfe and Mills [ 12 ], where it was found that for Wylfa in particular, the C-14 precursor C-13 makes a more significant contribution to the total activity than N-14 at 10 wppm. Although it must be stated that this is for Wylfa and not Oldbury as studied in this work and previous work has shown significant differences in these two reactors [ 8 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examination of Surface Deposits on Oldbury Reactor Core Graphite to Determine the Concentration and Distribution of 14C

2016

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Pile Grade A graphite was used as a moderator and reflector material in the first generation of UK Magnox nuclear power reactors. As all of these reactors are now shut down there is a need to examine the concentration and distribution of long lived radioisotopes, such as 14C, to aid in understanding their behaviour in a geological disposal facility. A selection of irradiated graphite samples from Oldbury reactor one were examined where it was observed that Raman spectroscopy can distinguish between underlying graphite and a surface deposit found on exposed channel wall surfaces. The concentration of 14C in this deposit was examined by sequentially oxidising the graphite samples in air at low temperatures (450°C and 600°C) to remove the deposit and then the underlying graphite. The gases produced were captured in a series of bubbler solutions that were analysed using liquid scintillation counting. It was observed that the surface deposit was relatively enriched with 14C, with samples originating lower in the reactor exhibiting a higher concentration of 14C. Oxidation at 600°C showed that the remaining graphite material consisted of two fractions of 14C, a surface associated fraction and a graphite lattice associated fraction. The results presented correlate well with previous studies on irradiated graphite that suggest there are up to three fractions of 14C; a readily releasable fraction (corresponding to that removed by oxidation at 450°C in this study), a slowly releasable fraction (removed early at 600°C in this study), and an unreleasable fraction (removed later at 600°C in this study).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examination of Surface Deposits on Oldbury Reactor Core Graphite to Determine the Concentration and Distribution of 14C

2016

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“…Activation modelling has also been used successfully to account for C-14 gaseous discharges from a UK Magnox power station [12]. Activation modelling was used to predict C-14 production rates in both the graphite core and the carbon dioxide coolant over a selected period of operation and the results compared with monitored site C-14 discharges.…”

Section: Fispin (Fission Product Inventory) Libraries and Finally Fismentioning

confidence: 99%

The Significance of Carbon 14 in Graphite Reactor Components at End of Generation

Metcalfe¹,

Tzelepi²

2019

JEP

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“…There are also anthropogenic sources of 14 C. A large amount of 14 C was produced and released as a result of nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and 60s and subsequently distributed via the carbon cycle, doubling the atmospheric inventory of 14 CO 2 (Nydal and Lovseth 1983;Levin et al 1985;Manning et al 1990). The nuclear power industry also releases 14 CO 2 , which offsets the depletion caused by fossil fuel combustion (Vokal and Kobal 1997;McNamara et al 1998;Fontugne et al 2004;Yim and Caron 2006;Magnusson 2007;Molnar et al 2007;Dias et al 2009;Graven and Gruber 2011;Aulagnier et al 2012;Svetlik et al 2012;Wang et al 2012Wang et al , 2013Wang et al , 2014Vogel et al 2013;Metcalfe and Mills 2015;Tierney et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel Method of Extraction for Radiocarbon Measurements of Atmospheric Carbon dioxide

Pugsley¹,

Knowles²,

O’Doherty³

2019

Radiocarbon

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In this paper, we present the first data from an alternative extraction method for atmospheric 14CO2 analysis, based on the direct trapping of whole air samples onto a molecular sieve zeolite (13X) trap, incorporated into a commercially available automated graphitization system. Results are presented for both inter-laboratory comparison samples and an in-house reference standard. The in-house reference was used to calculate the standard deviation of measurements (2.0‰). This newly developed method will facilitate faster sample processing and therefore lower cost per analysis, critical for scaling up such studies.

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Radiocarbon mass balance for a Magnox nuclear power station

Cited by 20 publications

References 2 publications

Examination of Surface Deposits on Oldbury Reactor Core Graphite to Determine the Concentration and Distribution of 14C

Examination of Surface Deposits on Oldbury Reactor Core Graphite to Determine the Concentration and Distribution of 14C

The Significance of Carbon 14 in Graphite Reactor Components at End of Generation

Novel Method of Extraction for Radiocarbon Measurements of Atmospheric Carbon dioxide

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