Title: Examination of hot particles originating from damaged fuels at the nuclear power plant Paks

Authors: Aniko Kerkapoly, Nora Vajda, Tamas Pinter

Addresses: Institute of Nuclear Techniques, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, H-1521 Budapest, 9 Muegyetem rakpart, Hungary. ' Institute of Nuclear Techniques, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, H-1521 Budapest, 9 Muegyetem rakpart, Hungary, ' Nuclear Power Plant Paks, P.O. Box 71, Paks H-7031, Hungary

Abstract: Radioactive samples can contain radionuclides not only in homogeneous form, but also as |hot| particles. With the characterisation of these high activity particles, information about the source of the samples can be obtained. The examination of hot particles is important in the case of environmental as well as nuclear samples; this paper details the analyses of particles originating from incidentally damaged fuels of the cleaning tank incident at Unit 2 of NPP Paks in April 2003. With the help of alpha-spectrometry, the burnup of individual particles was estimated.

Keywords: hot particles; particle analysis; alpha-spectrometry; burnup; nuclear incident; cleaning tanks; nuclear power plants; nuclear energy; Hungary; damaged fuels; nuclear fuel; radioactive samples; nuclear samples; nuclear accidents; fuel rods; water pollution; water contamination.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNEST.2005.008560

International Journal of Nuclear Energy Science and Technology, 2005 Vol.1 No.4, pp.344 - 350

Published online: 30 Dec 2005 *

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