A Novel Laser Enhanced Instrument for Nuclear Waste Characterisation

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The UK has set a world-leading net zero target to end our greenhouse gas emissions by 2050\. To achieve this ambitious target the UK must scale up both renewable and low-carbon energy production significantly. In the 2022 government policy paper 'British Energy Security Strategy' it is projected that the UK will increase nuclear energy production to 24GW by 2050, more than 3 times current production and a quarter of total future power requirements.A significant part of the cost associated with nuclear power is related to the final decommissioning process and waste classification. The UK has already built up a significant and complex nuclear power network which will need be decommissioned over the next 100 years. Going forward this issue will become more prevalent, as new sites are being planned.A major challenge within this process is the classification of waste between 'low' and 'very low' levels of contamination. Increasing the sensitivity and reducing the time associated with the waste characterization process will have a significant impact on the related costs. Waste that is deemed to have 'low' levels of contamination will cost more to decommission than 'very low' level waste, so this classification is very important. The characterization process is also essential to avoid generating new waste streams through accidental contamination.One of the most common and dangerous contaminants produced by the nuclear industry is radio strontium (90Sr). Strontium is chemically similar to calcium and can therefore readily be absorbed by the human body into bones. Once incorporated into the body, 'Bone seeker' isotopes such as radio strontium undergo radioactive decay and can cause cancers.Methods for detecting most nuclear contaminants are well developed, many of them rely upon separating atoms based, upon their mass. Other contaminants are more difficult to detect as their mass is the same as non-radioactive isotopes that are found naturally at much higher levels, for example radio strontium has the same atomic mass as the naturally occurring element, zirconium. This project will address a challenging problem within the decommissioning process associated with the radio strontium.Our innovative technology combines two analytical techniques, those of 'laser spectroscopy' and 'mass spectrometry', our new method enables rapid sample analysis of minute quantities of contamination and is highly selective. This method dramatically reduces the time taken to analyse samples. Cutting the process time from weeks to minutes, will dramatically reduce the costs of dealing with nuclear waste.