In situ evaluation of radwaste gamma activities

There are certain limitations concerning the usage of standard source method for efficiency calibration of gamma-ray spectrometers measuring in extended geometry conditions. These limitations arise from the great diversity of forms and sizes of the objects which are to be measured during decommissioning and radioactive waste management activities. The INR - Pitesti operates a radioactive waste management facilities for both its own necessities and for providing external services. This facility is able to perform conditioning of liquid and solid wastes for interim storage disposal. During the conditioning operations there are certain stages when the radioactive measurement of the storage drums is demanded. We developed a gamma ray spectrometry equipment using a portable MCA Canberra INSPECTOR, a HPGe detector and an INR manufactured collimator. We are using a semiempirical method to calibrate the gamma ray spectrometer for such measurements. A program was written in Visual Basic language and includes a graphical interface for parameters input and data output. The input parameters are stored in text files, which can be loaded, modified or saved on disk as desired. The program was tested to establish the stability of MC simulation and the sensitivity to the input parameters. During the programming process it was possible to verify some code sequences and the results obtained showed that the model used was appropriate. To find out the optimal number of MC histories, which have to be modelled to obtain results of sufficient accuracy, the program was repeatedly run by changing only the number of histories. The relative deviation to the mean of the effective solid angle was calculated. The density of the source material as well as its composition can be changed by input. For comparison the efficiency calibration curves for sources materials having the same elemental composition but different densities ranging from 10 to 1000 kg/m3 are drawn. The activities of the identified radionuclides in some waste drums containing bituminized spent exchange resins are shown. The results were in good agreement with the initial waste activity measurement, the calculated errors amounting up to about 20%