Determination of 129I in cement-solidified radwastes using neutron activation

The purpose of this study is to develop a neutron activation method to determine trace amounts of 129I in cement-solidified radwastes. The radwaste samples were alkaline fused using KOH and then 129I and iodine carrier were chemically separated by solvent extraction before and after neutron irradiation. Both stable iodine (127I) and 129I can be activated by neutrons through 127I (n, 2n) 126I and 129I (n, γ) 130I reactions; their activated radionuclides were counted together with a high-purity germanium detector. The chemical recovery yields ranged from 30 to 60 %, and it was found that more than 99.9 % of interfering radionuclides can be removed using solvent extraction after neutron irradiation. The minimum detectable amounts can be lowered to less than 1 mBq g−1, which is superior to low energy γ-ray spectrometry by a factor of >102, on average. The established technique can be applied to re-evaluation of 129I content in radwastes that can be re-classified to lower classes, and the cost for designing a final disposal facility can be significantly reduced.