Development of a mobile radioxenon processing system for on-site inspections and the deployment in IFE14.
A mobile radioxenon gas processing system (XESPM-III) was developed for on-site inspections-targeting deployment in the Integrated Field Exercise in Jordan 2014 (IFE14)-in order to monitor radioxenon isotopes (131m,133,133m,135Xe) from the subsoil and atmosphere. XESPM-III is composed of primarily three units, the sampling unit, the purification unit and finally the quantification unit. The function of the sampling unit is to pre-enrich xenon by removal of impurities in the gas sample, while the purification unit further purifies, separates impurities and prepares a small-volume sample with relatively high concentration of xenon gas-both stable and radioactive xenon (if present). The quantification unit quantifies the stable xenon which provides information of the gas recovery (yield) of the gas sampling and purification process. In one cycle (7.5 h) XESPM-III can process either two 4 m3volume samples or two pairs 2 m3samples each; 24 h maximum throughput is thus twelve 2 m3samples or six 4 m3samples; final purified gas sample volume is approx. 7 cm3(Xe + N2used as carrier gas); gas recovery (yield) is >70%; radon removal coefficient is 10-6; cross contamination between subsequent samples is <1%; Its flexible design, that does not include a spectrometry system, allows it to be used with various spectrometric systems (HPGe, beta-gamma coincidence) for the final measurement of the radioactive xenon concentrations in the sample. During the field deployment of the XESPM-III in IFE14 it was able to measure133Xe in the range of 0.18-0.54 Bq/m3in spiked subsoil gas.
Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, P. O. Box 69-27, Xi'an, 710024 China. Electronic address: zhouchongyang@pku.org.cn.
Chongyang
C
Zhou
Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, P. O. Box 69-27, Xi'an, 710024 China.
Guoqing
G
Zhou
Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, P. O. Box 69-27, Xi'an, 710024 China.
Shujuan
S
Feng
Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, P. O. Box 69-27, Xi'an, 710024 China.
Dingwei
D
Huang
Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, P. O. Box 69-27, Xi'an, 710024 China.
Xinhua
X
Zhao
Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, Provisional Technical Secretariat, P.O. Box 1200, A-1400, Vienna, Austria.
J S Elisabeth
JSE
Wieslander
Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, Provisional Technical Secretariat, P.O. Box 1200, A-1400, Vienna, Austria.
Kirill
K
Khrustalev
Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, P. O. Box 69-27, Xi'an, 710024 China.
Xiaolong
X
Yu
Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, P. O. Box 69-27, Xi'an, 710024 China.
Ziwei
Z
Cheng
Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, P. O. Box 69-27, Xi'an, 710024 China.
Rui
R
Wu
Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, P. O. Box 69-27, Xi'an, 710024 China.
Ronghu
R
Zou
D000327:Adsorption; D000396:Air Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis*; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D014980:Xenon Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis*
D000396:Air Pollutants, Radioactive; D014980:Xenon Radioisotopes
Adsorption separation; CTBTO; IFE14; Membrane separation; On-site inspection (OSI); Radioxenon