RADIATION PROTECTION ›› 2020, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (5): 394-401.

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An investigation on discharge and analytical methods of 55Fe in liquid effluents from PWRs of nuclear power plants

SHA Xiangdong1, HUANG Yanjun1, ZENG Fan1, SHANGGUAN Zhihong1, JIANG Jing2, WU Liansheng1, CAO Zhonggang3, CHEN Chaofeng1   

  1. 1. Suzhou Nuclear Power Research Institute, Co. Ltd., Jiangsu Suzhou 215004;
    2. Radiation Safety Center, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing 102245;
    3. Radiation Monitoring Technical Center, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Hangzhou 310012
  • Received:2019-12-30 Published:2020-11-16

Abstract: This paper focuses on sources investigation of 55Fe in liquid effluents from pressurized water reactors (PWRs) in nuclear power plants and relative analytical methods and provides some suggestions on development of 55Fe monitoring in liquid effluents of nuclear power plants. The discharge amounts were statistically analyzed by extracting the data from public annual effluent reports of 41 US PWRs during 2005-2017 (total 871 reactor-years), which would help us to understand the necessity of 55Fe monitoring in liquid effluents in discharge supervision of nuclear power plants. The statistical results showed that the electricity normalized discharge amounts (geometric averages) for each PWR mainly ranged from 5.18×10-7 to 8.14×10-5 GBq/GWh with an average of 1.52×10-5 GBq/GWh, with above 12% of the total fission and activation radionuclides which ranked from the first to the forth. From a typical discharge volume of a Gigawatt scale PWR, the estimated discharge concentration of 55Fe about 10.7 Bq/L would be deduced. Meanwhile, the analytical methods of 55Fe were extensively investigated and the monitoring method standardization of 55Fe in liquid effluents is suggested, especially for a rapid analytical method of chromatography separation and liquid scintillation measurement.

Key words: pressurized water reactor, nuclear power plant, liquid effluent, 55Fe, monitoring

CLC Number: 

  • TL75+1