This paper addresses the problem of false positive alarm when using a continuous air monitor (CAM) in decommissioning sites of nuclear facilities. CAMs are used to measure airborne activity and play an important role in the radiation protection of workers likely to be exposed to radioactive aerosols. Monitors usually sample aerosols on a membrane filter. Radioactive particles sampled are detected through the alpha and beta decays that they emit. These latter ionizing particles are measured online by spectrometry thanks to a Passivated Implanted Planar Silicon detector (PIPS). Alpha and beta decays, in this context, come mainly from the natural radon progeny (²¹⁸Po, ²¹⁴Pb, and so on) and, in the case of radioactive contamination, also from artificial radionuclides such as ²³⁹Pu or ¹³⁷Cs. The aim of the CAM is to alert the workers when the artificial airborne activity occurs, always considering the presence of a variable background due to the natural particulate airborne activity. The CAM-specific algorithm considers this background dynamically and continuously, often by using a constant parameter. However, non-radioactive aerosols are also sampled on the membrane filter. These latter make the discrimination more difficult as they lead to the deterioration of the alpha-energy spectrum. In this paper, the effect of coarse non-radioactive aerosols on the CAM response is highlighted with four aerosol size-distributions. The evolution of the background is characterized as a function of the aerosol mass sampled, with the example of a simple algorithm. Thus, in this paper, results show a positive correlation of the background with the aerosol mass sampled by the CAM. In addition, results highlight at least two different evolutionary trends according to the aerosol size distribution. An explanation of these evolutions is given by considering the penetration profile of the natural radioactive aerosols in the granular deposit above the CAM filter. The main consequence of these results is that the background could not be considered as proportional to radon progeny as it is currently used.

In nuclear facilities, the mandatory airborne contamination surveillance is operated by continuous air monitors (CAMs). It samples the ambient air on a filter and measures the deposited activity. It is designed to trig an alarm whenever the measured activity concentration exceeds a defined threshold. However, in some sites, such as dismantling nuclear sites, a high rate of false alarm is experienced, mainly for artificial alpha. It has been shown that false alarms are directly related to a sudden variation of the aerosol mass sizes distribution, i.e. a wrong detection limit (DL) evaluation. Experiments on the ICARE tests bench have been carried out to compare the CAM’s DL and an estimated DL as a function of the aerosol characteristics, to the measured one. This new estimation shows significant improvements over the previous one and highlights the need to consider aerosol characteristics for a correct airborne contamination measurement.

The electrostatic self-charging rate of tokamak dust is investigated using Geant4, a toolkit for the simulation of the passage of particles through matter. To do so, the particles geometrical characteristics, the β disintegration energy spectrum and the deepness of tritium infusion are taken into account. The investigated materials are tungsten and beryllium, the plasma facing components (PFC) of ITER, considered as spherical particles from 20 nm to 200 μm in diameter, both tritiated. Two cases of tritium distribution in the particles are examined. On the one hand, tritium is homogeneously distributed over the whole sphere; on the other hand, tritium is homogeneously distributed within the external 100 nm layer of the sphere. The self-charging rate is assessed through the calculation of the particle exiting electron rate. Based on a tritium inventory of 10 GBq/g, relevant for ITER tokamak environment, our results show that, for a single tungsten or beryllium particle of 10 μm in diameter, the self-charging rate when the tritium is homogeneously distributed within the whole sphere is respectively 2.4 and 1.9 positive elementary charges per second. In the configuration where the tritium absorption is confined in the external 100 nm layer, the charge magnitude raises up to 37.1 and 8.4 respectively.

In nuclear facilities, the mandatory atmosphere surveillance is operated by Continuous Air Monitors. This standalone instrument is designed to measure the airborne aerosol activity concentration and to trig an alarm signal when a predetermined activity concentration is exceeded. However, a rapid resuspension event of coarse aerosol leads to a measurement error: the airborne aerosol activity concentration is over-evaluated. Prior results have shown that the coarse aerosol deposit disturbs the background evaluation for the radioactivity measurement. The interactions between radioactive aerosols (with radon daughters) and coarse non-radioactive aerosols have to be investigated by running together aerosol models and nuclear simulations. Therefore, this paper investigates different ways to represent an aerosol deposit in numerical simulations. We developed two numerical aerosol deposit models that we integrated into Geant4, a tool for the simulation of the passage of radiations through matter, and then compared these to experimental results. The simplest model was discarded, and by using the second model, we managed to correctly frame our simulation results as an experimental measurement: an aerosol has been correctly considered in a nuclear simulation. By combining theory, simulations, and experimentations on both aerosol science and nuclear physics, this research will be able to improve the comprehension of monitors’ behaviour in delicate situations and, more broadly, the filtration of aerosols using radioactivity.

In nuclear safety and environmental studies, it is necessary to measure the activity of aerosols collected on filters. The calibration of these filters’ measurement chains currently involves producing a reference filter with a controlled deposit of aerosol marked by a specific radionuclide. In France, commonly used radionuclides include ¹³⁷Cs for gamma or beta emitters, ⁹⁰Sr/⁹⁰Y for beta emitters, and ²³⁹Pu for alpha emitters. However, using ²³⁹Pu presents several issues, notably the destruction of the filter required to determine its traceable activity and the associated uncertainties. The challenge of this project is to propose a radionuclide enabling non-destructive, SI-traceable measurement while retaining the reference filter. The proposed radionuclide is ²⁴¹Am, which is both alpha and gamma-emitting and allows for precise non-destructive measurements. Reference filters are produced on the IRSN’s ICARE test bench with calibrated aerosols tagged with ²⁴¹Am. The reference activity of theses filters is measured by gamma spectrometry on CEA/LNHB reference counter. A series of tests confirmed that ²⁴¹Am provides accurate activity determination with minimal uncertainty. Consequently, adopting ²⁴¹Am can significantly improve the reliability of radioactive contamination monitoring while avoiding practical challenges associated with plutonium.