INSTITUTE FOR NUCLEAR RESEARCH

PITESTI – ROMANIA  
“Neutron activation analysis on slurry
resulted from waste water conditioning”

Authors: Dumitru Bărbos, barbos@scn.ro

Constantin Păunoiu
Affiliation: Institute for Nuclear Research
(INR) Piteşti, Romania
 Abstract

The present paper presents the method for

determining the elemental concentration in the
slurry resulted from waste water conditioning
at the INR site. In achieving of this goal, we
used the ACPR TRIGA reactor as neutron
source, operated in stationary mode. The
TRIGA Annular-Core Pulsing Reactor (ACPR)
is a pool type pulsed reactor. The samples
were irradiated in the pneumatic rabbit of this
reactor. There are presented the results of the
measurements for neutron flux-spectrum
characterization in the pneumatic rabbit
irradiation location, and the results obtained for
multi-elemental analysis using the Zr method.
 NEUTRON FLUX-SPECTRUM
MEASUREMENTS
 Neutron flux spectrum measurements in the ACPR
pneumatic rabbit dry channel were performed using
multi-foil activation techniques. Activation reaction
rates were obtained by absolute measurement of the
induced activity using gamma-ray spectroscopy
techniques.
 The foil detectors were placed into an polyethylene
cartridge and introduced in the dry hole using
pneumatic rabbit. During the foil detectors irradiation
the reactor was operated in steady-state mode at a
power level of about 100 kW.
 For flux spectrum measurements, the multifoil activation method was
applied. The neutron spectra and flux are obtained by unfolding from
measured reaction rates. Nine thermal, epithermal and threshold foil reaction
rates were measured. For gamma spectrum counting a 20% efficiency and
128cm3 high purity Germanium detector connected to a spectrometer with
multichannel analyzer installed on PC with ADC interface were used. The
spectrometer is absolute-efficiency calibrated for the usual counting distances.
Self-shielding corrections for the activation foils are also applied. The self-
shielding corrections are computed using Monte-Carlo simulation methods.
The solution spectrum obtained by the SAND-II code runs, and the response
functions are presented in Figure 1. The solution is obtained after 2 iterations
with a standard deviation of measured activities equal to 2.51 %.
The guess spectrum used for unfolding was generated using SAND II
energy mesh according to the formula:

 E / kTn 
E
E 
 E    th e kTn
  epi
 kTn  2
E
and matched to fission spectrum at 0.5 MeV
 th
 epi

The thermal to epithermal ratio is estimated

from measured cadmium ratio of 197Au (n,)
reaction.
The integral flux measured value is 3.01* 10 12
n/cm2s.. The sub cadmium neutron flux value
is 1.4*1012 n/cm2s and cadmium ratio
Rcd=1,94.
 Elemental concentration determination in the
analyzed samples using the Zr standardization
method.
 To determine the elemental concentration in the analyzed
samples, the multi-isotope foil standardization method ( Zr
method) was used.
Zr monitor has a double utilization : From the specific reaction
rates of 95Zr and 97Nb, the thermal to epithermal neutron flux
ratio is determined, using the relation :
M 2  1  1  p ,1  th1  I 0  Asp1  I 0 
* * * * *    *  
M 1  2  2  p , 2  th 2   th  1 Asp 2   th 2
f (2)
Asp1 M 2  1  1  p ,1  th1
 * * * *
Asp 2 M 1  2  2  p , 2  th 2
  In the following, the isotope 94Zr is used as a
comparator also.

Asp,a M c * a *  a * 0,a f  Q0,a  p ,a

k anal   * * (3)
Asp,c M a * c *  c * 0,c f  Q0,c  p,c
 The elemental concentration is computed with the
relation :
A 1
 sp , i
* (4)
i
S *D*C *w k anal Asp , c
*
 Samples were collected from calming basins no 1 ad 2 at the
waste water conditioning plant at the INR site. Together with
each sample, a Zr monitor was irradiated in order to measure
the thermal ( E < 0.5 eV) to epi-thermal flux ratio. During
irradiation, the reactor was operated in stationary mode at a
constant power level of 100 kW. Irradiation time was of two
hours.
 The induced reaction rates in the samples and the monitors
were measured by the means of the gamma-ray spectrometry
chain already described here. The thermal to epi-thermal flux
ratio is f=10.56.
 The gamma-ray spectrometry measurements showed the
presence of important Uranium quantities. It is important to
emphasize that its concentration is so large ( percent levels) so
that for this (rather small) irradiation time, fission reaction
were already observed.
 The analyzed samples showed the presence of Na, K, Sc; Cr,
Fe, Zn, Br, W, As, Co, as well as traces of Au and La.
Concentration values are given in Table 2.
 Table 2

Concentration(ppm)

Loc de Tir
prelevare (h)

La Na K As Br Sc Cr Fe W Zn Co U Au

Bazin 1
SCN 2,01 60,79 2823 6571 4,03 17,87 6,44 610 4,58% 13,56 1719 17,05 0,18% 0,11

Bazin 2
SCN 0,08
2,01 25,22 2398 5021 1,013 4,73 4,5 267 3,08% 5,53 1581 23,08 0,09% 4

+/- Overall uncertainty

Sample1
2.74 127 262.8 0.20 0.89 0.19 18.3 0.09 0.68 68.76 0.68 0.008 0.006

Sample2
1.13 107 201 0.05 0.24 0.14 8 0.06 0.28 63.24 0.92 0.004 0.004