Xenon-133: Ambient Activity from Nuclear Power Stations

Kunz, C.O.; Paperiello, C.J.

doi:10.1126/science.192.4245.1235

Cited by 23 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Nuclear reactor cleanup. Radioactive inert gases are important fission products of U and are emitted from nuclear power plants during normal operation and, in much larger amounts, during reactor accidents (14,15). Probably the two most important of these gases are 133Xe (half-life, 5.25 days) and "Kr (half-life, 10.8 years), which are, respectively, 6.6% and 0.3% of the fission products of 235U.…”

Section: Xenon Gasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Gases Dissolve in Liquids

Pollack

1991

Science

112

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The thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of solubility are fairly well understood. It is still very difficult, however, to make quantitative predictions of solubility for real systems from first principles. The purposes of this article are to present the results of solubility experiments in some prototype solute-solvent systems, to show how far they may be understood from molecular first principles, and to discuss some of the things that are still missing. The main systems used as examples have the inert gas xenon as solute and some simple organic liquids as solvents.

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Section: Xenon Gasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Gases Dissolve in Liquids

Pollack

1991

Science

112

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“…In the past, ambient levels of atmospheric radioxenons were generally measured by drying air followed by collections at tmperatures of -70°C to -8OOC on activated charcoal beds (Bernstrom et al. 1983;Kunz 1989;Kunz and Paperiello 1976;Kunz 1973;Pence et al 1978) with flow rates on the order of 0.2 to 0.4 m3/h. An oil-less piston compressor (see Figure 3.1) (a) forces air at -550 to 700 Wa (80 to 100 psig) at a rate of -7 m3/h through a particulate filter and a heat exchanger (b) which cools the air to about ZOC, and movesit througha 100%dutycycleindustrialairdryingsystem(c)Nledwithamixedbedof 13Xmolecular sieve and 4 0 3 , in a ratio of 2:l (two columns approximately 150-cm long by lO-cm &a).…”

Section: Xenon Trappingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automatic radioxenon analyzer for CTBT monitoring

Bowyer¹,

Abel²,

Hensley³

1996

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Portions of this SummaryOver the last three years, with guidance and support from the U.S. Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Research and Development program, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has developed and demonstrated a fully automatic analyzer for the collection and quantitative measurement of the four xenon radionuclides, 131mXe (1 1.9 d), 133"Xe (2.19 d), 133Xe (5.24 d), and 13' Xe (9.10 h), in the atmosphere. These radionuclides are important signatures in monitoring for compliance to a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The activity ratios between certain of these radionuclides permit discrimination between radioxenon originating from nuclear detonations and that from nuclear reactor operations, nuclear fuel reprocessing, or from medical isotope production and usage.With our system, xenon is continuously and automatically separated from the atmosphere at flow rates of about 7 m3/h by sorption-bed techniques. Aliquots collected for 6 to 12 hours are automatically analyzed by electron-photon coincidence spectrometry to provide sensitivities in the range of 20 to 100 pBq/m3 of air. This sensitivity is about 100-fold better than achieved with reported laboratory-based procedures (for example, DeGeer, 1995) for the short time collection intervals of interest. The large sensitivity improvement over reported laboratory techniques is due to a 10-to 25-fold higher sampling rate, a 3-to 4-fold higher counting efficiency, a lo3-to lO"-fold lower background, the immediate analysis of the radioxenons following collection and purification, and the elimination of radon from the separated atmospheric xenon samples. Spectral data from the measurements are automatically analyzed, and the calculated radioxenon concentrations and raw gamma-ray spectra are automatically transmitted to data centers.

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“…The atmospheric concentrations of 133 Xe observed in October and November, 1993 are shown in Table 1 and data from the current year are shown in Table 2. (Kunz and Paperiello, 1976) and approximately 200 mBq/SCM in 1981. The average for our data over the two-month interval, 2.0 mBq/SCM, is a factor of 50 lower than the 1975 average of 100 mBq/SCM cited for the U. S.…”

Section: Disclaimermentioning

confidence: 99%

Determination of atmospheric concentrations of xenon radioisotopes. Progress report

Abel¹,

Panisko²,

Hensley³

et al. 1995

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Determination of radioactive xenon concentrations in the atmosphere over a two year period has been performed as part of a research program to develop real-time measurement capabilities. The initial measurements were made to develop, prove, and validate our technical approach, while the longer-term measurements are being undertaken to establish natural background concentrations and variability with time. The results reported were made using

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Xenon-133: Ambient Activity from Nuclear Power Stations

Cited by 23 publications

References 3 publications

Why Gases Dissolve in Liquids

Why Gases Dissolve in Liquids

Automatic radioxenon analyzer for CTBT monitoring

Determination of atmospheric concentrations of xenon radioisotopes. Progress report

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