Preliminary studies on the development of an automated irradiation system for production of gaseous radioisotopes applied in industrial processes

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to demonstrate how it will be enhanced an Irradiation System (IS) developed with national technology to produce gaseous radioisotopes, by means of the components automation, to avoid the radiation exposure rate to operators of the system, following the ALARA principle (As Low As Reasonably Achievable). Argon-41 (41Ar) and krypton-79 (79Kr) can be produced in continuous scale, gaseous radioisotopes used as radiotracers in industrial process measurements and it can be used in analytical procedures to obtain qualitative and quantitative data systems or in physical and physicochemical studies transfers. The production occurs into the IS, installed in the pool hall of a nuclear research reactor in which the irradiation capsule is positioned near the reactor core containing the isotope gaseous pressurized (40Ar or 78Kr), by (n,γ) reaction and generate the radioisotopes. After the irradiation, the gaseous radioisotope is transferred to the system and, posteriorly, to the storage and transport cylinders, that will be used in an industrial plant. In the first experimental production, was obtained 1.07x1011 Bq (2.9 Ci) of 41Ar distributed in two storage and transport cylinders, operating the IEA-R1 Research Reactor with 4.5 MW and average thermal neutron flux of 4.71x1013 n.cm-2.s-1. However, the system has capacity to five storage and transport cylinders and the estimated maximum activity to be obtained is 7.4x1011 Bq (20 Ci) per irradiation cycle. In this sense, the automation will be based in studies of the production process in the system and the use of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), and supervisory software allowing a remote control and consequently better security conditions.