Radioactive wastes management in a radiochemistry laboratory

The Laboratorio de Monitoracao Ambiental (AMB) of the Unidade de Tratamento de Minerio (UTM) belonging to the Industrias Nucleares do Brasil is a chemical, radiochemical and radiometric laboratory, that analyses the natural radionuclides present in samples coming from the various installation of Industrias Nucleares do Brasil (INB). To minimize the radiological environmental impact, that laboratory has adopted a washing system of the chapel exhausting, that recirculate the washing water. These water can accumulate the radionuclides coming from the samples, that are liberated together the exhaustion gases from the chapels. Also, the water coming from the analyses and the sample releases (environmental and of the process) represent the liquid effluents of the AMB. The release of this effluent must pass by chemical and radiological criteria. From the radiological viewpoint, that release must be based on the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN) regulations. This work try to establish the monitoring frequency, the radionuclides to be analysed, the form of liberation of those effluents, and the analytical techniques to be used. The radionuclides to be analysed will be U-nat, Ra-226 and Pb-210, of the uranium series, and the Th-232 and Ra-228, of the thorium series. The effluents must be monitored either before the release or, at least, twice a year. The effluents considered radioactive wastes, will be send to waste dam by the radioprotection service, or to the effluent treatment for controlled liberation for the environment