Measurement and characterisation of radioactive materials

Key radioactive products and various sources of radiation

Household and industrial detergents, Textile processing, coatings, inks, resins and plastics  Pulp processing, Petrochemical and refractory industries, Water treatment, Industrial, institutional and domestic biocides, Food and nutrition and Personal care products.

Since precise quantification of nuclear materials in waste poses some problems, operators are often tempted to overestimate the nuclear material content of waste drums following basic criticality safety rules.

This procedure is highly prejudicial for control andaccountancy purposes since it results in biased nuclear materials balance and the obviousconsequence that it is impossible to conclude on a possible loss or diversion of nuclearmaterials by the only analysis of the facility material balance.

This is due to the fact that quantities that are shipped out of the facility are effectively smaller than those reported. Thistrend observed in the operators’ behaviour reaches some limit for economical reasons sinceeach waste drum should not exceed an activity limit (due to repository specifications in case of disposal), which corresponds to a nuclear materials mass limit.