Tellurium retention by containment spray system

A containment spray system is used to mitigate the source term from the containment building to the environment as part of the severe accident management actions. Tellurium is one of the volatile fission products and many of the tellurium isotopes decay into iodine, which causes a threat to the public due to its radiotoxicity and build-up in the thyroid gland. The removal efficiency of the containment spray system model against tellurium species formed under severe accident conditions was investigated with experiments and MELCOR simulations. The results indicated efficient removal of tellurium aerosols in the air atmosphere, whereas a decrease in the efficiency was observed in the nitrogen atmosphere. Gaseous tellurium species were not formed in significant amounts during the experiments and therefore, the removal efficiency due to different spray chemistry conditions could not be accurately analysed. However, the alkaline chemicals used in the spray solution seemed to form airborne particles, increasing the overall aerosol transport in the process independently of CsI or Te aerosol transport

The Sun Health Research Institute Brain Donation Program: Description and Eexperience, 1987–2007

The Brain Donation Program at Sun Health Research Institute has been in continual operation since 1987, with over 1000 brains banked. The population studied primarily resides in the retirement communities of northwest metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. The Institute is affiliated with Sun Health, a nonprofit community-owned and operated health care provider. Subjects are enrolled prospectively to allow standardized clinical assessments during life. Funding comes primarily from competitive grants. The Program has made short postmortem brain retrieval a priority, with a 2.75-h median postmortem interval for the entire collection. This maximizes the utility of the resource for molecular studies; frozen tissue from approximately 82% of all cases is suitable for RNA studies. Studies performed in-house have shown that, even with very short postmortem intervals, increasing delays in brain retrieval adversely affect RNA integrity and that cerebrospinal fluid pH increases with postmortem interval but does not predict tissue viability

Ruthenium transport in an RCS with airborne CsI

Ruthenium is one of the most radiotoxic fission products which can be released from fuel as ruthenium oxides in an air ingress accident at a nuclear power plant. In this study it was found that the transport of the released ruthenium oxides through a reactor coolant system into the containment building is significantly affected by the atmospheric conditions. Airborne CsI increased the transport of gaseous ruthenium compared with that in a pure air atmosphere. The overall transport of ruthenium increased with temperature. In order to understand the behaviour of ruthenium in accident conditions, it is important to widen the experimental conditions from pure air/steam atmospheres to more realistic mixtures of prototypic gases and aerosols

Effect of nitrogen compounds on transport of ruthenium through the RCS

Ruthenium is a fission product that can be released from the fuel in case of a severe nuclear accident. In this work the impact of the atmosphere composition, including air radiolysis products, on the transport of ruthenium through a primary circuit was examined. Experiments were performed at temperatures 1300, 1500 and 1700 K in a slightly humid air. In the experiments significant effect of nitrogen oxides (N2O, NO2) and nitric acid on the ruthenium chemistry in the model primary circuit was observed. The obtained results indicate a strong effect of air radiolysis products on the quantity partitioning of transported ruthenium to gaseous and aerosol compounds

EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS ON IODINE POOL SCRUBBING

International audienceWithin the framework of the NUGENIA Technical Area 2.4, the international IPRESCA project was initiated to examine the pool scrubbing phenomenon efficiency for the retention of fission products in the water pools of containment building in the case of a severe nuclear power plant accident. The potential use of IPRESCA outcomes of experimental and analytical research is mainly linked to future improvements of physical modelling and simulation codes. Although several studies have been conducted in the past, those have been mainly focused on the rather moderate experimental conditions, such as atmospheric temperature/pressure as well as low gas flow rates to the pool. Therefore, the current computer models are also reflecting these experimental conditions. In this work, the key parameters for pool scrubbing have been extended towards more realistic conditions, such as elevated pool temperature and the gas flow rate entering the pool from moderate globule regime to fierce jet regime. The observations on the gaseous iodine pool scrubbing and re-entrainment in the small-scale and large-scale experiments are summarized

EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS ON IODINE POOL SCRUBBING

International audienceWithin the framework of the NUGENIA Technical Area 2.4, the international IPRESCA project was initiated to examine the pool scrubbing phenomenon efficiency for the retention of fission products in the water pools of containment building in the case of a severe nuclear power plant accident. The potential use of IPRESCA outcomes of experimental and analytical research is mainly linked to future improvements of physical modelling and simulation codes. Although several studies have been conducted in the past, those have been mainly focused on the rather moderate experimental conditions, such as atmospheric temperature/pressure as well as low gas flow rates to the pool. Therefore, the current computer models are also reflecting these experimental conditions. In this work, the key parameters for pool scrubbing have been extended towards more realistic conditions, such as elevated pool temperature and the gas flow rate entering the pool from moderate globule regime to fierce jet regime. The observations on the gaseous iodine pool scrubbing and re-entrainment in the small-scale and large-scale experiments are summarized

Tellurium determination by three modes of instrumental neutron activation analysis in aerosol filters and trap solutions for the simulation of a severe nuclear accident

Tellurium belongs to the elements not frequently determined by neutron activation analysis (NAA) or other analytical methods. We present results of a new methodological study using three independent modes of instrumental NAA (INAA) using the\ua0123mTe,\ua0131Te and\ua0131I radionuclides. We compare the results obtained in terms of accuracy, precision and limits of detection (LOD). We utilized the INAA procedures tested for the tellurium determination in aerosol filters and trap solutions in a model experiment aimed at reducing the knowledge gap concerning the behaviour of\ua0132Te, a radiologically significant fission product, which constitutes a considerable health risk towards the public in case of its release in a severe nuclear power plant accident. We found that the nuclear reaction\ua0130Te(n,γ)131Te and gamma-ray spectrometric measurement of\ua0131I, a descendant of\ua0131Te, is the most sensitive way of Te determination by INAA providing as low LOD values as 0.15\ua0\ub5g of Te in the Teflon aerosol filters and 0.22\ua0\ub5g mL-1\ua0in the 0.1\ua0M NaOH trap solutions. The three independent INAA modes allowed employing the self-verification principle of INAA for increasing the trustworthiness of our results. Finally, we also point to the indispensable role of the non-destructive feature of INAA for assay of samples, such as Teflon aerosol filters, that are difficult to be analysed by other analytical methods requiring complete sample destruction without analyte losses

RECENT FINDINGS ON RUTHENIUM CHEMISTRY IN A SEVERE ACCIDENT

The chemistry of radiotoxic ruthenium in a severe nuclear power accident has actively been investigated especially during the last decades. The Ru studies have covered the release from a fuel, the transport in the primary circuit and the behaviour in the containment building. The gathered experimental data have been utilized to understand the key parameters governing the Ru chemistry in a severe accident (SA) and to check the ability of the existing models of SA analysis codes to explain the experimental results. To further increase the knowledge on Ru behaviour, the collaboration on international level has been intensive. Lately, the widest and most active networks have been EU SARNET and EU SARNET2. The valuable effort of these networks on sharing information of e.g. national programs and on interpreting the experimental results is continued in EU NUGENIA program. More detailed studies on separate phenomena have been conducted e.g. as part of OECD/NEA STEM/START and ISTP/VERDON programs. Furthermore, Ph\ue9bus FP tests have produced valuable data on integral phenomena.The large-scale integral and semi-integral experiments have confirmed that Ru release depends strongly on carrier gas. Ru is significantly released from an irradiated fuel sample under oxidizing conditions, in particular when air is involved. In addition, the oxidation of UO2 fuel seems to lead to a higher Ru release than in case of MOX fuel. Ruthenium can be transported to the containment atmosphere both in gaseous and particulate forms. The small-scale separate-effect experiments gave a detailed view on Ru transport. A high fraction of ruthenium was detected as particles at the outlet of the model primary circuit in an air atmosphere. However, the observed gaseous Ru fraction is higher than what could be expected based on thermodynamic equilibrium calculations. Further studies on the effect of flow residence time in a temperature gradient for the equilibrium of Ru oxides have been conducted.The effect of other fission products in the gas phase, as well as FP deposits on the surface of primary circuit, on the Ru transport has been investigated. For example, caesium containing deposits seemed to trap gaseous ruthenium effectively. Similarly in case of control rod residues, silver particles in the gas phase of the circuit acted as a sink for gaseous Ru. In an air ingress accident, the effect of air radiolysis products on the Ru chemistry becomes important. As the main air radiolysis products can be considered as oxidizing agents, their ability to oxidize the lower oxides of Ru to higher oxidation state has been examined.Most of Ru in the containment building ends up as deposits on the containment surfaces and in the sump. Experiments on the radiolytical revaporisation of ruthenium deposits on the epoxy paint surface indicated the release of gaseous ruthenium and it was enhanced under humid atmosphere and elevated temperature. It appeared that the products of air radiolysis caused by γ-radiation promoted the formation of gaseous ruthenium from Ru oxide deposits on paint in a higher amount than could be expected by pure ozone action. Concerning the irradiation tests of perruthenate aqueous solutions, they indicated the formation of gaseous Ru by γ-radiolysis products in solution

Impact of Ag and NOx compounds on the transport of ruthenium in the primary circuit of nuclear power plant in a severe accident

Ruthenium is a semi-volatile element originating as a fission product in nuclear reactors that can be released in case of a severe nuclear accident. In this work, the impact of atmosphere composition on the transport of ruthenium through the primary circuit was examined. The effects of silver nanoparticles representing aerosols and NO2 gas as a product of air radiolysis were studied. Quantification of ruthenium transported both as gas and aerosol was performed. Chemical composition of ruthenium species was evaluated. The transport of gaseous ruthenium through the facility increased significantly when NO2 gas was fed into the atmosphere. When both silver aerosols and NO2 were fed into the atmosphere, the transport of ruthenium in gaseous and aerosol forms was promoted. It was concluded that the composition of atmosphere in the primary circuit will have a notable effect on the speciation of ruthenium transported into the containment building during a severe accident and thus on the potential radioactive release to the environment