Determination of 137Cs contamination depth distribution in building structures using geostatistical modeling of ISOCS measurements

Abstract

Decommissioning of nuclear building structures usually leads to large amounts of low level radioactive waste. Using a reliable method to determine the contamination depth is indispensable prior to the start of decontamination works and also for minimizing the radioactive waste volume and the total workload. The method described in this paper is based on geostatistical modeling of in situ gamma-ray spectroscopy measurements using the multiple photo peak method. The method has been tested on the floor of the waste gas surge tank room within the BR3 (Belgian Reactor 3) decommissioning project and has delivered adequate results.

Keywords: Facility decontamination and decommissioning; Geostatistics; In Situ Object Counting System (ISOCS); In situ gamma spectroscopy; Site radiological characterization.