Feasibility Study of Radio Xenon Measurement in Environment Using Computational Techniques

Abstract

Xenon (Xe) is a noble gas and therefore chemically inert in the environment. The Earth’s atmosphere contains approximately 0.087 ppm of stable xenon. Radio xenon isotopes like ¹³³Xe and ¹³⁵Xe are artificial isotopes generated from various nuclear facilities. Atmospheric measurement of radioactive xenon isotopes (radio xenon) plays a key role in remote monitoring of any nuclear accidents, abnormal release from nuclear facilities or nuclear explosions, since radio xenon has a high capability to migrate in a wide range from the site. The measurement of these gamma-emitting radioxenon gas can be done by sampling the gas in measurement geometry (like gas cell) and counting the cell in suitable gamma spectrometry-based detector system. For measurement of radioactive content in the sample, the efficiency calibration of system has to be carried out with same measurement geometry and same gamma ray energy that of sample. Many times, the radioactive standard sources in same measurement geometries and for same gamma energies are not feasible. In such cases, experimentally validated computational techniques are used for generating efficiency function. This paper describes the application of computational technique for measurement of radio xenon (¹³³Xe and ¹³⁵Xe) gas in the environment.