Radiochemical determination of 129I and 36Cl in MEGAPIE, a proton irradiated lead-bismuth eutectic spallation target
Abstract
The concentrations of the long-lived nuclear re-action products129Iand36Clhave been measured in sam-ples from the MEGAPIE liquid metal spallation target.Samples from the bulk target material (lead-bismuth eu-tectic, LBE), from the interface of the metal free surfacewith the cover gas, from LBE/steel interfaces and from no-ble metal absorber foils installed in the cover gas systemwere analysed using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at theLaboratory of Ion beam Physics at ETH Zürich. The majorpart of129Iand36Clwas found accumulated on the in-terfaces, particularly at the interface of LBE and the steelwalls of the target container, while bulk LBE samples con-tain only a minor fraction of these nuclides. Both nuclideswere also detected on the absorber foils to a certain extent(≪1%of thetotalamount). Thelatter number isnegligibleconcerning the radio-hazard of the irradiated target mate-rial; however it indicates a certain affinity of the absorberfoils for halogens, thus proving the principle of using no-ble metal foils for catching these volatile radionuclides.The total amounts of129Iand36Clinthetargetwerees-timated from the analytical data by averaging within thedifferent groups of samples and summing up these aver-ages over the total target. This estimation could accountforabouthalfoftheamountof129Iand36Clpredictedtobeproduced using nuclear physics modelling codes for bothnuclides. Thesignificanceof the results and the associateduncertainties are discussed. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000106289Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
Radiochimica ActaVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
De GruyterSubject
Accelerator mass spectrometry; Lead-bismuth-eutectic; Liquid metal chemistry; Radiochemical separationOrganisational unit
08619 - Labor für Ionenstrahlphysik (LIP) / Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics (LIP)
Notes
It was possible to publish this article open access thanks to a Swiss National Licence with the publisher.More
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