Development of methods for detection of radioactive aerosols of special importance for the ESS facility

Abstract: With the construction of the European Spallation Source (ESS) steadily approaching the operational phase, an environmental monitoring program will soon be implemented with the purpose of monitoring emissions. With regard to radiation safety, it is highly important to monitor alpha emitting radionuclides in aerosol form. Thus, an experimental investigation of direct alpha spectroscopy methods was conducted in order to evaluate the current experimental setup at Medical Radiation Physics in Malmö. Direct alpha spectroscopy measurements of aerosols collected on filters collected during combustion of earth soil samples were performed. Additionally, the natural alpha background in aerosols was intended to be assessed from filter samples collected at Hyltemossa Research Station in northern Scania (Sweden). Furthermore, simulations of direct alpha spectroscopy measurements are conducted in order to anticipate a measured spectra during normal operation but also in the case of an emergency at the ESS, simulations used calculated data by the ESS together with a dispersion model in order to track emissions to ground level concentrations. Direct alpha spectroscopy for environmental samples, was able to detect the presence of 210Po with a low approximate activity level of 2.8 mBq per filter. The well-defined peaks resulted from the use of a multi stage impactor when sampling, which lead to a high surface deposition of the particles. The simulations illustrate this further by showing the effect of surface deposition and how it highly affects the quality of the attained spectrum for both the normal operation and the emergency scenario. Simulated spectrum for normal operation suggest the possible detection of 148Gd without any treatment of the filters. For the emergency scenario the activity level of 148Gd is much lower than from other radionuclides. Thus the simulated spectra instead show the possible need of chemical separation of the wanted radionuclide.