Investigating the 36Cl memory effect in pyrolysis of solid samples from nuclear decommissioning activities

Inés Llopart, Mirela Vasile, Andrew Dobney, Sven Boden, Michel Bruggeman, Martine Leermakers, Jixin Qiao, Phil Warwick

Research outputpeer-review

Abstract

During the optimization of 36Cl determination in solid wastes from nuclear decommissioning, a residual 36Cl signal was observed in procedural blanks measured after processing active samples. To uncover the possible causes, we investigated the interaction of chlorine with the components of a Pyrolyser-6 Trio™, as well as the chemicals used during the procedure. Different treatments for identifying the source of chlorine carryover were thoroughly investigated, demonstrating that the 36Cl memory effect arises from the interaction with pyrolyser components and that it occurs almost every time when the analysis procedure is performed. Therefore, results obtained using this analysis procedure need to be corrected for this memory effect by measuring procedural blank samples before and after measuring 36Cl-containing samples.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-11
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
DOIs
StatePublished - 9 Aug 2022

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