Determination of scaling factors to estimate the radionuclide inventory of wastes from the IEA-R1 research reactor

Abstract

Regulations for transfer and final disposal of radioactive waste require that the inventory of radionuclides for each package enclosing such waste must be estimated and declared. In this work, the scaling factor methodology was applied successfully to estimate the inventory of radionuclides in spent ion-exchange resins and spent activity level, from the IEA-R1 nuclear research reactor. Scaling factors or correlation functions were obtained linking the activity concentrations of 15 difficult to measure nuclides with two gamma-ray emitting key nuclides, reducing exposure to ionizing radiation, contamination risks and operational costs.