Monitoring of Airborne Contamination Using Mobile Equipment
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STUK-A130 FEBRUARY 1996 9- Monitoring of Airborne Contamination Using Mobile Equipment T. Honkamaa, H. Toivonen, M. Nikkinen 1 0 r 1 v. f STUK-A130 FEBRUARY 1996 Monitoring of Airborne Contamination Using Mobile Equipment T. Honkamaa, H. Toivonen, M. Nikkinen FINNISH CENTRE FOR RADIATION AND NUCLEAR SAFETY P.O.BOX 14 FIN-00881 HELSINKI Finland Tel. +358 0 759881 NEXT PAGE(S) left BLANK FINNISH CENTRE FOR RADIATION STUK-A130 AND NUCLEAR SAFETY T. Honkamaa, H. Toivonen, M. Nikkinen. Monitoring of Airborne Contamination Using Mobile Equipment. Helsinki 1996, 65 pp. ISBN 951-712-094-X ISSN 0781-1705 Key words Radioactive particles, in-field gamma-ray spectrometry, emergency preparedness ABSTRACT Rapid and accurate measurements must be carried out in a nuclear disaster that releases radioactive material into the atmosphere. To evaluate the risk to the people, .external dose rate and nuclide-specific activity concentrations in air must be determined. The Finnish Centre for Radiation and Nuclear Safety (STUK) has built an emergency vehicle to accomplish these tasks in the field. The present paper describes the systems and methods to determine the activity concentration in air. Airborne particulate sampling and gamma-ray spectrometric analysis are quantitative and sensitive tools to evaluate the nuclide-specific concentrations in air. The vehicle is equipped with a pump sampler which sucks air through a glassfiber filter (flow about 10 1 s"1). Representative sampling of airborne particles from a moving vehicle is a demanding task. According to the calculations the total collection efficiency in calm air is 60 -140% for the particle size range of 0.1 - 30 um. Side wind increases differences in collection efficiency between different particle sizes. The activity concentration in air is obtained by dividing the activity of the filter by the amount of air sampled. The nuclide-specific detection limits for some typical release nuclides are about 0.1 Bq m'3 when the sampling time and collection time of the spectrum are both 10 minutes. The filter can also be analysed with a beta counter. A simple method and model to evaluate the approximate beta activity concentration in air are presented. In the field conditions airborne activity concentration measurements in-situ are possible. This facilitates the detection of hazardous activity concentrations immediately. The measuring routines and alarm controls can be automated. The nuclide-specific detection limits are 1 - 10 Bq m'3 (spectrum collection time 10 minutes) when the detector is shielded against the unscattered gammaflux from the ground. FINNISH CENTRE FOR RADIATION AND NUCLEAR SAFETY STUK-A130 PREFACE Inhalation is an important dose pathway at the early stages of a nuclear accident, hi many scenarios inhalation exposure is dominating over the external dose rate during the first two days after the accident. To protect people it is important to find out the concentration of radionuclides during the plume arrival to the target areas. This, however, is a very demanding measuring problem. All Nordic countries have stationary and mobile air samplers. However, only in a few places the sampler is located in the vicinity of a laboratory that has the analysing facili- ties. Often it takes a long time before the filters are transported from the field to the laboratory. The time delay is much longer if also the samplers have to be transported to the site in danger. Air sampling and high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry on-line are one way to find out the nuclide-specific concentrations. Such devices are commercially available but they are extremely expensive. Another approach is to use mobile units - either cars, boats or helicopters and aeroplanes. The authors are grateful to Jens Hovgaard, Danish Emergency Management Agency, for initiating this project within the NKS frames (NKS/EKO3/95AVR7). FINNISH CENTRE FOR RADIATION STUK-A130 AND NUCLEAR SAFETY NOMENCLATURE Symbol description Value Unit First appearance 3 Ac Activity concentration in air variable Bqm" (8) A, Parameter in the model variable - (10) Bg Average background count- rate in beta counter variable cpm (17) Cunningham factor variable (B.6) cc - CR Count rate in the beta-probe variable s"1 (10) CRM Count rate generated by artificial radioactive nuclides variable cpm (13) CR,. Average count rate in beta probe in i:th measurement variable cpm (14) 222Rn-concentration in air variable Bqm"3 (12) Q Beta-activity concentration oi" sampled air variable Bqm"3 (15) d Height of the detector above ground 1.7 m (Figure 18) D Characteristic dimension (diameter for circle) variable m (6) dae Aerodynamic diameter of a particle variable m (B.3) Do Diameter of the entry of the probe 0.036 m (5) dP Physical diameter of a particle variable m (5) A Diameter of the sampling tube (=diameter of the base ofthediffuser) 0.088 m (B.2) Ea Aspiration efficiency variable - (1) Ec Total sampling efficiency variable (3) Ef Sampling efficiency of the filter variable (3) EF Calibration factor in gamma-ray spectro- metric measurement of a filter sample variable (Bq s'1) (8) FINNISH CENTRE FOR RADIATION AND NUCLEAR SAFETY STUK-A130 E, Sampling efficiency of the tube variable - (2) E* Transmission efficiency of the tube variable - (B. 1) G Parameter for calculation of aspiration efficiency variable - (A. 3) g Acceleration induced by earth 9.81 ms': (B.3) h, Height (see Figure 18) variable m (27) h, Height (see Figure 18) variable m (27) lv Vena contracta parameter variable - (B.7) L Wall impaction parameter variable - (B.7) L Length of the tube 0.4 m (B.2) L, Deposition loss inside the tube variable - (2) MDA() Minimum detectable activity of given quantity variable Bq m"3 (19) MPA Maximum possible activity concentration of beta active nuclides in air variable Bq m"3 (21) MR Measured count rate ratio (see Figure 13) variable - (13) MRcmI Upper confidence limit for MR, variable - (18) N Net counts in a peak in a gammaspectrum variable (8) Na Number of particles going through the inlet •variable - (1) Na,b Number of background pulses under a peak in a gammaspectrum variable - (9) Nb Number of background pulses under a peak in a gammaspectrum variable - (7) #w Number of background pulses under a peak in a gammaspectrum variable - (9) Nbipeak Number of pulses in a peak in a background gammaspectrum variable - (9) Count rate in beta probe when no artificial activity is present variable S"1 (Figure 13) FINNISH CENTRE FOR RADIATION STUK-A130 AND NUCLEAR SAFETY 1) Number of particles that originally were in the air volume collected variable - (1) 2) Count rate in full energy peak variable s"1 (24) NMDA Detection limit of a nuclide expressed in pulses variable - (7) NR Expected count rate ratio, when no artificial radioactive nuclides are present (see Figure 13) variable - (13) No Full energy peak count- rate for photons arriving from 9=0 variable S"1 (24) R Speed ratio VJV variable - (A. 2) R(6.4>) Relative detector response at the given angles variable - (26) Re Reynolds number variable - (6) Stk Stokes number variable - (5) Source term (activity sv concentration in air) variable Bqnr3 (24) Q Flow rate through the sampler variable mV1 (12) ta measuring time of actual measurement variable s (9) h measuring time of background measurement variable s (9) *, tl, h time variable s (10,13) ^samp sampling time variable min (10) to Parameter in the model (11)-(12) 4.23 min (10) V 1) Velocity of the air flow at the entry of the probe variable ms'1 (A. 2)) 2) Collected air volume in 3 the measuring time variable m (8) Speed of the vehicle variable ms'1 (4) vc Speed of free stream vf near the entry of the probe variable ms'1 (4) 1 Vrs Settling velocity of a particle variable ms' (B.2) Velocity of wind variable ms"1 (4) vw U Flow velocity at the observed point variable ms'1 (6) a Gravity effect angle 0 - (B.8) 1 1 Y gamma yield of a nuclide variable Bq" s" (8) FINNISH CENTRE FOR RADIATION AND NUCLEAR SAFETY STUK-A130 •n Air viscosity 1.8-10"5 N s m"2 (5) e 1) The angle between the axis of the probe and air flow relative to it variable - (A. 1) 2) Angle defined in Figure 15 variable - (25) Kp Effective decay constant of radon progenies in a filter 0.0151 min'1 (10) Attenuation coefficient in air without coherent scattering variable m"1 (27) Density of air 1.2 kg m"3 (6) Pg 3 PP Density of the particle 1000 kg m" (5) oCRj standard deviation of CRS variable - (16) oMR standard deviation of Mi variable - (17) $ Photon fluence rate at the detector variable s"1 m-2 (24) Angle defined in Figure 17 variable - (25) FINNISH CENTRE FOR RADIATION STUK-A130 . AND NUCLEAR SAFETY CONTENTS Page 1 INTRODUCTION 11 2 AIR SAMPLING IN A MOVING VEHICLE 13 2.1 Measurement of airborne contamination 13 2.2 Measuring system in the emergency vehicle of STUK 13 2.3 Theoretical estimation of sampling efficiency 15 2.4 Improving the inlet 24 2.5 Filtration efficiency 26 2.6 Tests 26 2.7 Discussion 26 3 GAMMA-RAY SPECTROMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE FILTER IN THE FIELD 28 3.1 Gamma-ray spectrometric measuring system of the emergency vehicle of SIUK. 28 3.2 Minimum detectable activities of some nuclides 30 3.3 Discussion 32 4 RAPID CONCENTRATION ESTIMATION OF BETA-ACTIVE NUCLIDES USING SIMPLE DEVICES 35 4.1 Introduction 35 4.2 Measuring devices 35 4.3 Calibrations 36 4.4 Results of calibration measurements 40 4.5 Artificial activity concentration in air 42 4.6 Error prediction and detection limits 42 4.7 Prediction of radon concentration 45 4.8 Computer code for calculation 45 4.9 Detection limits 46 4.10 Reliability of the