Depth Measurement Technique for Entrained Radioactive Contamination

Dealing with nuclear legacy is expensive. A universal challenge found at many nuclear facilities is that associated with the in-situ measurement of entrained radioactivity within the walls of nuclear fuel storage found in many power and reprocessing facilities. During decommissioning the contaminated surface must be removed and separated from the low level waste (LLW) and stored as intermediate level waste (ILW). ILW is around 30 times more expensive to store and so proper classification of material can make significant long term savings. Using techniques that have been shown to work in a laboratory environment, we will develop a system to measure the depth contamination is entrained in a surface to ensure that material is removed and classified efficiently. This will speed the removal process producing health and cost saving benefits for the decommissioning process and reduce the long term storage costs for radioactive material for the UK.