title: A FTIR/chemometrics approach to characterize the gamma radiation effects on iodine/epoxy-paint interactions in Nuclear Power Plants.
abstract: The effects of radiation on polymeric materials are a topic of concern in a wide range of industries including the sterilization, and the nuclear power industry. While much work has concentrated on systems like polyolefins that are radiation sterilized, some work has been done on epoxy systems. The epoxy system studied is an epoxy/amine paint which is representative of the paint that covers the inner surfaces of the French nuclear reactor containment buildings. In case of a severe accident on a Nuclear Power Plant, fission products can be released from the nuclear fuel to the reactor containment building. Among them, volatile iodine (I2) can be produced and can interact with the epoxy-paint. This paint is also subjected to gamma radiation damages (due to the high dose in the containment coming from radionuclides released from the fuel). So the epoxy-paint studied was exposed to gamma radiation under air atmosphere after being loaded with I2or not. The aim of this study is to characterize by FTIR spectroscopy the iodine-paint interactions, then to identify the radiation damages on the epoxy-paint, and to check their effects on these iodine-paint interactions. This work shows the potential of multi-block analysis method (ANOVA-PCA and COMDIM = AComDim) for such a study as it allows to identify the nature of iodine/epoxy-paint interactions and to characterize the gamma radiation damages on the epoxy-paint. AComDim method conduces to the extraction of Common Components to different tables and highlights factors of influence and their interactions.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire, PSN-RES/SEREX/L2EC, CEN Cadarache BP3, 13115 Saint Paul lez Durance Cedex, France. Electronic address: juliette.colombani@irsn.fr.
authors.forename: Juliette
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Colombani
authors.affiliation: Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire, PSN-RES/SEREX/L2EC, CEN Cadarache BP3, 13115 Saint Paul lez Durance Cedex, France; Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS ICR UMR 7273, 13397 Marseille Cedex 20, France.
authors.forename: Elodie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chauvet
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, Avignon Université, IMBE UMR 7263, 13397 Marseille Cedex 20, France.
authors.forename: Sandrine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Amat
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, Avignon Université, IMBE UMR 7263, 13397 Marseille Cedex 20, France.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dupuy
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS ICR UMR 7273, 13397 Marseille Cedex 20, France.
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gigmes
keywords: AComDim; Epoxy-paint; Gamma radiation; Iodine; MIR spectroscopy