A versatile facility for the measurement of small amounts of gases in radioactive materials

A versatile facility has been developed for the determination of small amounts of gases in radioactive and other nuclear materials. The apparatus comprises a remotely operated vacuum gas release system in shielded α, β, γ containment, and gas measuring equipment. The vacuum gas release system is multifunctional allowing thermal gas release by using furnaces with operating temperatures of 200 to 7500C and 8000 to 16000C, and mechanical release by crushing, drilling and breaking. Micromanometry is employed for total gas measurement and mass-spectrometry for composition analysis. The apparatus has been applied to the measurement of gases in single coated fuel particles, in Pacemaker and irradiation capsules, Harvest/Fingal nuclear waste storage glasses and irradiated specimens of the nimonic alloy PE 16. (author)