Anders Ringbom

SAUNA : a system for automatic sampling, processing, and analysis of radioactive xenon

Abstract A system for automatic sampling, processing, and analysis of atmospheric radioxenon has been developed. From an air sample of about 7 m 3 collected during 12 h , 0.5 cm 3 of xenon is extracted, and the atmospheric activities from the four xenon isotopes 133 Xe , 135 Xe , 131m Xe , and 133m Xe are determined with a beta–gamma coincidence technique. The collection is performed using activated charcoal and molecular sieves at ambient temperature. The sample preparation and quantification are performed using preparative gas chromatography. The system was tested under routine conditions for a 5-month period, with average minimum detectable concentrations below 1 mBq / m 3 for all four isotopes.

Isotopic noble gas signatures released from medical isotope production facilities—Simulations and measurements

Radioxenon isotopes play a major role in confirming whether or not an underground explosion was nuclear in nature. It is then of key importance to understand the sources of environmental radioxenon to be able to distinguish civil sources from those of a nuclear explosion. Based on several years of measurements, combined with advanced atmospheric transport model results, it was recently shown that the main source of radioxenon observations are strong and regular batch releases from a very limited number of medical isotope production facilities. This paper reviews production processes in different medical isotope facilities during which radioxenon is produced. Radioxenon activity concentrations and isotopic compositions are calculated for six large facilities. The results are compared with calculated signals from nuclear explosions. Further, the outcome is compared and found to be consistent with radioxenon measurements recently performed in and around three of these facilities. Some anomalies in measurements in which (131m)Xe was detected were found and a possible explanation is proposed. It was also calculated that the dose rate of the releases is well below regulatory values. Based on these results, it should be possible to better understand, interpret and verify signals measured in the noble gas measurement systems in the International Monitoring of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

SCANDAL - a facility for elastic neutron scattering studies in the 50-130 MeV range

A facility for detection of scattered neutrons in the energy interval 50 130 MeV, SCAttered Nucleon Detection AssembLy (SCANDAL), has recently been installed at the 20-180 MeV neutron beam facility of The Svedberg Laboratory, Uppsala. It is primarily intended for studies of elastic neutron scattering, but can be used for (n,p) and (n,d) reaction experiments as well. The performance of the spectrometer is illustrated in measurements of the (n,p) and (n,n) reactions on H-1 and C-12. In addition, the neutron beam facility is described in some detail

The influence on the radioxenon background during the temporary suspension of operations of three major medical isotope production facilities in the Northern Hemisphere and during the start-up of another facility in the Southern Hemisphere

Medical isotope production facilities (MIPF) have recently been identified to emit the major part of the environmental radioxenon measured at many globally distributed monitoring sites deployed to strengthen the radionuclide component of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) verification regime. Efforts to raise a global radioxenon emission inventory revealed that the yearly global total emission from MIPFs is around 15 times higher than the total radioxenon emission from nuclear power plants (NPPs). Given that situation, from mid 2008 until early 2009 two out of the ordinary hemisphere-specific events occured: 1) In the Northern hemisphere, a joint temporary suspension of operations of the three largest MIPFs made it possible to quantify the effects of the emissions related to NPPs. The average activity concentrations of (133)Xe measured at a monitoring station close to Freiburg, Germany, went down significantly from 4.5 +/- 0.5 mBq/m(3) to 1.1 +/- 0.1 mBq/m(3) and in Stockholm, Sweden, from 2.0 +/- 0.4 mBq/m(3) to 1.05 +/- 0.15 mBq/m(3). 2) In the Southern hemisphere the only radioxenon-emitting MIPF in Australia started up test production in late November 2008. During eight test runs, up to 6.2 +/- 0.2 mBq/m(3) of (133)Xe was measured at the station in Melbourne, 700 km south-west from the facility, where no radioxenon had been observed before, originating from the isotopic production process. This paper clearly confirms the hypothesis that medical isotope production facility are at present the major emitters of radioxenon to the atmosphere. Suspension of operations of these facilities indicates the scale of their normal contribution to the European radioxenon background, which decreased two to four fold. This also gives a unique opportunity to detect and investigate the influence of other local and long distance sources on the radioxenon background. Finally the opposing effect was studied: the contribution of the start-up of a renewed radiopharmaceutical facility to the build up of a radioxenon background across Australia and the Southern hemisphere.

Worldwide measurements of radioxenon background near isotope production facilities, a nuclear power plant and at remote sites: the “EU/JA-II” Project

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) specifies that radioxenon measurements should be performed at 40 or more stations worldwide within the International Monitoring System (IMS). Measuring radioxenon is one of the principle techniques to detect underground nuclear explosions. Specifically, presence and ratios of different radioxenon isotopes allows determining whether a detection event under consideration originated from a nuclear explosion or a civilian source. However, radioxenon monitoring on a global scale is a novel technology and the global civil background must be characterized sufficiently. This paper lays out a study, based on several unique measurement campaigns, of the worldwide concentrations and sources of verification relevant xenon isotopes. It complements the experience already gathered with radioxenon measurements within the CTBT IMS programme and focuses on locations in Belgium, Germany, Kuwait, Thailand and South Africa where very little information was available on ambient xenon levels or interesting sites offered opportunities to learn more about emissions from known sources. The findings corroborate the hypothesis that a few major radioxenon sources contribute in great part to the global radioxenon background. Additionally, the existence of independent sources of 131mXe (the daughter of 131I) has been demonstrated, which has some potential to bias the isotopic signature of signals from nuclear explosions.

On the calculation of activity concentrations and nuclide ratios from measurements of atmospheric radioactivity

Motivated by the need for consistent use of concepts central to the reporting of results from measurements of atmospheric radioactivity, we discuss some properties of the methods commonly used. Different expressions for decay correction of the activity concentration for parent-daughter decay pairs are presented, and it is suggested that this correction should be performed assuming parent-daughter ingrowth in the sample during the entire measurement process. We note that, as has already been suggested by others, activities rather than activity concentrations should be used when nuclide ratios are calculated. In addition, expressions that can be used to transform activity concentrations to activity ratios are presented. Finally we note that statistical uncertainties for nuclide ratios can be properly calculated using the exact solution to the problem of confidence intervals for a ratio of two jointly normally distributed variables, the so-called Fieller׳s theorem.

International challenge to model the long-range transport of radioxenon released from medical isotope production to six Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty monitoring stations

After performing a first multi-model exercise in 2015 a comprehensive and technically more demanding atmospheric transport modelling challenge was organized in 2016. Release data were provided by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization radiopharmaceutical facility in Sydney (Australia) for a one month period. Measured samples for the same time frame were gathered from six International Monitoring System stations in the Southern Hemisphere with distances to the source ranging between 680 (Melbourne) and about 17,000 km (Tristan da Cunha). Participants were prompted to work with unit emissions in pre-defined emission intervals (daily, half-daily, 3-hourly and hourly emission segment lengths) and in order to perform a blind test actual emission values were not provided to them. Despite the quite different settings of the two atmospheric transport modelling challenges there is common evidence that for long-range atmospheric transport using temporally highly resolved emissions and highly space-resolved meteorological input fields has no significant advantage compared to using lower resolved ones. As well an uncertainty of up to 20% in the daily stack emission data turns out to be acceptable for the purpose of a study like this. Model performance at individual stations is quite diverse depending largely on successfully capturing boundary layer processes. No single model-meteorology combination performs best for all stations. Moreover, the stations statistics do not depend on the distance between the source and the individual stations. Finally, it became more evident how future exercises need to be designed. Set-up parameters like the meteorological driver or the output grid resolution should be pre-scribed in order to enhance diversity as well as comparability among model runs.

A program to generate simulated radioxenon beta–gamma data for concentration verification and validation and training exercises

PNNL developed a beta–gamma simulator (BGSim) that incorporated GEANT-modeled data sets from radioxenon decay chains, as well as functionality to use nuclear detector-acquired data sets to create new beta–gamma spectra with varying amounts of background, 133Xe, 131mXe, 133mXe, 135Xe, and 222Rn and its decay products. After BGSim was developed, additional uses began to be identified for the program output: training sets of two-dimensional spectra for data analysts at the IDC and other NDC, and spectra for exercises such as the Integrated Field Exercise 2014 held in Jordan at the Dead Sea.

Effects of surface coatings on the light collection in plastic scintillators used for radioxenon detection

Atomic layer deposition coatings are under investigation to reduce the diffusion of radioxenon into plastic scintillators. This paper investigates the impact of such surface coating on the light collection efficiency in a cylindrical geometry. A high and uniform light collection efficiency is important to preserve detector resolution. Monte Carlo simulations and measurements have been carried out to study the influence of coating thickness, refractive index and surface quality. It was found that it is important to achieve a smooth coating and good optical match between the refractive indices of the coating and the plastic scintillator. Taking into account these considerations, the detector under study could be coated without a significant degradation of its resolution.

Calculation of electron–photon coincidence decay of 131mXe and 133mXe including atomic relaxation

Detailed deterministic calculations of electron-photon coincidence spectra for (131m)Xe and (133m)Xe, including Auger electrons and X-rays from atomic relaxation, have been performed in order to increase the understanding of observed features in spectra produced by radioxenon measurement systems used in nuclear explosion monitoring. Energies and intensities of Auger electrons and X-rays agree well with earlier calculations, and the predicted intensities and energies for (131m)Xe show good agreement with observed features in electron spectra. The results can be used in the development of radioxenon calibration and concentration analysis techniques.