Automated separation and measurement of radioxenon for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

✍ Scribed by T. W. Bowyer; K. H. Abel; C. W. Hubbard; A. D. McKinnon; M. E. Panisko; R. W. Perkins; P. L. Reeder; R. C. Thompson; R. A. Warner

• Book ID: 105556298
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 478 KB
• Volume: 235
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1588-2780
• DOI: 10.1007/bf02385941

✦ Synopsis

A fully automatic radioxenon sampler/analyzer (ARSA) has been developed and demonstrated for the collection and quantitative measurement of the four xenon radionuclides, 13hnXe(11.9 d), 133mXe(2.2 d), 133Xe(5.2 d), and 135Xe(9.1 hr), in the atmosphere. These radionuclides are important signatures in monitoring for compliance to a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Activity ratios of these radionuclides permit source attribution. Xenon, continuously and automatically separated from the atmosphere, is automatically analyzed by electron-photon coincidence spectrometry providing a lower limit of detection of about 100 ~tBq/m 3. The demonstrated detection limit is about 100 times better than achievable with reported laboratory-based procedures for the short-time collection intervals of interest.