Review of monitoring instruments for transuranics in fuel fabrication and reprocessing plants. A progress report to the physical and technological programs, Division of Biomedical and Environmental Research, U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration

A comprehensive review of the monitoring instruments for transuranic elements released from nuclear fuel fabrication and reprocessing plants has been compiled. The extent of routine operational releases has been reviewed for the light water reactor (LWR) fuel cycle (including plutonium recycle), the breeder reactor fuel cycle, and the high-temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR) fuel cycle. The stack monitoring instrumentation that is presently in use at the various fabrication and reprocessing plants around the country is examined. Sampling difficulties including the inlet-probe arrangement and the effectiveness of the entire sampling system are discussed, as are the measurement problems for alpha-emitting, long-lived, transuranic aerosols, 129I, 106Ru, and tritium oxide. The potential problems in the HTGR fuel cycle such as the measurement of releases of alpha-emitting aerosols and of gaseous releases of 220Rn and 14C are also considered. Monitoring requirements range from the detection of low-level, routine releases to high-level accidental releases. Both first and second kinds of detection errors are considered in a discussion of adequate detection limits. The presently deployed monitors are critically examined in this light and the drawbacks and limitations of each are noted. Prototype instrumentation is studied, including Argonne's mechanical separation technique, Battelle's mass separation by surface ionization method, and in particular, LLL's transuranic aerosol measurement system. The potentials, sensitivities, advantages, and limitations of each system are enumerated. The additional potential uses of the LLL system are also discussed