A Novel Laser Enhanced Instrument for Nuclear Waste Characterisation

英国已经制定了一个世界领先的净零目标，到2050年结束我们的温室气体排放。为了实现这一雄心勃勃的目标，英国必须大幅扩大可再生能源和低碳能源的生产规模。在2022年的政府政策文件《英国能源安全战略》中，预计到2050年，英国将把核能发电量增加到24GW，是目前发电量的3倍多，占未来总电力需求的四分之一。与核电相关的成本中，有很大一部分与最终退役过程和废物分类有关。英国已经建立了一个重要而复杂的核电网络，该网络将在未来100年内退役。展望未来，随着新场地的规划，这一问题将变得更加普遍。这一过程中的一个主要挑战是将垃圾分类为污染水平在“低”和“非常低”之间。提高敏感性和减少与废物表征过程相关的时间将对相关成本产生重大影响。被认为污染水平“低”的废物退役的成本比“极低”水平的废物高，因此这一分类非常重要。表征过程对于避免意外污染产生新的废物流也是至关重要的。核工业产生的最常见和危险的污染物之一是放射性锶(90锶)。锶在化学上类似于钙，因此很容易被人体吸收到骨骼中。一旦进入人体，放射性锶等“寻骨者”同位素会经历放射性衰变，并可能导致癌症。大多数核污染物的检测方法都很成熟，其中许多方法依赖于根据原子的质量分离原子。其他污染物更难检测，因为它们的质量与自然发现的水平高得多的非放射性同位素相同，例如放射性锶的原子质量与自然产生的元素锆相同。这个项目将解决与无线电锶相关的退役过程中的一个具有挑战性的问题。我们的创新技术结合了两种分析技术--激光光谱分析和质谱分析，我们的新方法能够对微量污染进行快速样本分析，并且具有很高的选择性。这种方法极大地减少了分析样品所需的时间。将处理过程的时间从几周缩短到几分钟，将极大地降低处理核废料的成本。

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.