In order to meet government safety standards, facilities handling radioactive materials bear the responsibility of characterizing and documenting the residual radioactive content of any wastes prior to disposal. The most viable approach to compliance with today’s regulations requires assessment of the contamination from alpha-emitting radionuclides and fission/activation radionuclides via non-destructive assay. The results of these measurements are used for nuclear waste management, nuclear material accountability and nuclear criticality safety.

Due to the complexity of regulations, the diversity of radioactive inventories and matrices in waste, as well as the detection level and accuracy of measurements, there is no one waste measurement system that will meet the requirements for all nuclear waste generators. How you choose the appropriate waste assay systems to meet your specific needs depends on several factors:

• Purpose of measurement
• Radionuclides to be measured
• Required detection limits
• Composition and configuration of the waste
• Desired throughput and your material handling requirements

CANBERRA is committed to providing its customers a full range of measurement solutions to meet their site waste characterization needs. CANBERRA has a wealth of experience and expertise in non-destructive assays for waste measurement. Gamma assay, neutron assay, and combined gamma/neutron systems are available to measure containers ranging from non-packaged waste to vehicles. Process knowledge or laboratory analysis of the isotopic inventory of a particular waste stream can be utilized to provide scaling factors for pure alpha and beta emitting nuclides which can not be measured directly.

CANBERRA systems can be provided to:

• Quantify the radioactive inventory of a facility’s waste
• Classify waste according to disposal category including: Transuranic or alpha waste, low level waste, remote handled waste, and deminimus or free release waste
• Reduce disposal costs by accurately measuring waste activity
• Perform inventory control and material balances for safeguards

Waste measurement systems can be provided in a variety of configurations from standalone manually-loaded systems, to fully-automated systems which provide greater throughput and minimize personnel exposure. Mobile system configurations are also available, including ISO containers or semi-trailers. CANBERRA partners with its customers to configure the appropriate solution to help address site requirements, reduce operating costs and lower personnel exposure levels to meet ALARA program goals.