Development of a Depth Measurement Technique for Entrained Radioactive Contamination by Createc

Dealing with nuclear waste is expensive. Decommissioning of obsolete storage area such as
that currently underway at Sellafield, or cleaning up after a nuclear incident such as
Fukushima Dai-Ichi, generates a large quantity of concrete waste. A particularly pertinent
challenge is that associated with the in-situ measurement of entrained radioactivity within the
structure of nuclear fuel storage areas. Over the lifespan of these facilities, the concrete
structure absorbs the local radioactive nuclides. Our aim is to develop a non-invasive method
to profile the depth of radioactive penetration across a surface to aid cleanup and
decommissioning projects. This proof-of-concept will combine the research carried out
previously during PhD theses on the measurement of the depth of point source contaminant
within a material and our N-Visage technique, a method of estimating contamination on the
surface of an environment.