Development of a methology to minimizing Am-241 waste from radioactive lightning rod

• Autor(a) principal: ARAÚJO, Valeska Peres de
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: BRANDÃO, Luis Eduardo Barreira, SOUSA, Alvaro Serafim Ferreira de, FERREIRA, Elizabeth de Magalhães Massena, [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional do IEN
• Texto Completo: http://carpedien.ien.gov.br:8080/handle/ien/1735
• topic: Lightning rod; Radioactive; Waste

In 1989, the Brazilian National Nuclear Energy Commission, CNEN, cancelled the authorization to produce and install lightning rods that employed radioisotopes sources, which since then have been collected and treated as radioactive waste. The main radioisotopes employed as a radioactive source onto the lightning rods were the 241Am and 226Ra, being the 241Am the most used due to its lower production cost. In the radioactive lightning rods the sources are first fixed in a stainless steel support, then sealed and fixed on the 30 cm length lightning rod body by rivets. These captors when constantly exposed to rain and winds can release the radioactive material and then contaminate the device, generating a greater volume of waste.The focus of this preliminary study is to develop a methodology to minimize the final volume of waste by removing the source followed by a chemical treatment to clean the lightning rods. Ultrasound techniques associated with suitable solvents as water, acids and chelates was applied. Gamma spectrometry was used to analyze the material after each decontamination step. In agreement to Regulations of Radiological Protection, the results indicate that it is possible to dispose of the lightning rod after the source removal followed by a suitable treatment and reducing this way the volume of waste.