Overview of nuclear measurement methods

Radiophysical and radiochemical measurement and destructive as non-destructive techniques

In this section we describe the radiophysical and radiochemical measurement techniques available at SCK·CEN, as well destructive as non-destructive techniques.

This information is meant to be a practical guide to select particular techniques to solve well defined problems.

A complete overview of the techniques can be found in the table below. If you click on a technique, a new page will appear with the following information: aim, typical use, basic mechanism, type of samples, applicability range, turn-around time, advantages, disadvantages, contact person(s).

The information has been provided by the contributors, who keep the responsibility for the content of the tables.

The right way to the techniques

You are look for:	Our offer:
Characterisation of fission gasses	Gas mass spectrometry
Characterisation of gasses by hot vacuum extraction	Residual gas analysis
Total open porosity	Mercury porosimetry
Bulk density	Mercury pycnometry
Pu-isotopics NDA	Gamma spectroscopy
Pu-isotopics DA	TI/MS
Pu-concentration	TI/MS
U-enrichmentNDA	Gamma spectroscopy
U-enrichmentDA	TI/MS
U-concentration	TI/MS
Trace impurities in solids or solutions	SSMS, AES, ICP/AES, ICP/MS, I.S.E
Main composition of a sample	AES, ICP/AES, ICP/MS
Carbon determination	T.O.C.
Burnup determination - DA	Gamma spectrometry, alpha spectrometry, TI/MS, irradiated fuels measurements
Burnup determination - NDA	Irradiated fuel measurements
Waste measurements - isotopes	Gamma spectrometry, alpha spectrometry, beta spectrometry, TI/MS, Q2, neutron measurements, SGS
Radon	RTEC, RAC, RAMM, RISEM, REM
Standardised radioactive sources	Absolute measurements
Alpha and beta activity	Global alpha and beta measurements
I-131 activity	Specific beta measurements
Sr-89-90 activity	Specific beta measurements
H-3 activity	Low energy beta measurements
C-14 activity	Low energy beta measurements
Ni-63 activity	Low energy beta measurements
Tc-99 activity	Low energy beta measurements
Ra-226 activity	Radium and radon measurements
Rn-222 activity	Radium and radon measurements
Natural uranium concentration	Natural uranium measurements
Th activity	Actinides measurements
U activity	Actinides measurements
Pu activity	Actinides measurements
Am activity	Actinides measurements
Cm activity	Actinides measurements
Gamma emitters in-situ	In-situ gamma spectrometry
Dose equivalent	TLD dosimetry
Absorbed dose	TLD dosimetry
Calibrations	Laboratory for nuclear calibrations
Whole body counting	Whole body counting
Radiological safety	Gamma and alpha spectrometry
Surveillance of environment	Gamma and alpha spectrometry
Contamination of consumer products	Gamma and alpha spectrometry
Biological indicators	Gamma and alpha spectrometry
Fission rate distribution in fuel rods	VENUS horizontal gamma-scanner
Fission rate distribution in small fuel samples	VENUS tomography set-up
Gamma scanning of high burn-up fuel	Gamma-spectrometry in hot cell laboratories (LHMA)

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