Analysis Of Recycling Of Waste Radioactive Sources And Verification Of Reorganizating Equipment Of Radioactive Sources

More and more spent radioactive sources impose great pressure on the public and environmental safety,so the researches into its recycling and reusing begins to receive widespread attention.The reusing of the spent radioactive source can effectively reduce the environmental burden from ultimate disposal of the radioactive sources and eliminate the potential security of its radiation to the public.This article represents the kinds,applied range and the current situation of the disposal about spent radioactive source of the radioactive sources used in our nuclear technology utilization,and analysis into the problems existing in its reusing in China:(1)Not all the spent radioactive sources can be reused,so it is necessary to systematically and reasonably screen and judge them;(2)It is difficult to recycle the spent radioactive source from the original facility,and it is easy to generate radioactive contamination and undue exposure of the operating staff during the operation process;(3)Manufacturers and radioactive waste repositories in each province and city without reusing capacity among the storage of a great many of spent radioactive sources fail to classify based on if it can be reused.This causes the unavailability of spent radioactive source for the enterprise which can reuse it.First,probability analysis is conducted into reusing different kinds of radioactive sources for the above-mentioned problems so that the reusing direction is provided for some kinds of the spent radioactive sources;secondly,the design researches are conducted into its recycling technology from the original facilities,and recycling approaches involving the spent radioactive sources of various activities to avoid the radiation accidents during the operation process;thirdly,replication experiments are carried out for the shielding properties of the conditioning devices used for the classification of the spent radioactive sources and their conditioning capacity.The reused source in the spent radioactive sources are mostly the one with highactivity,with high activity and dosage rate,great hazard and difficulties in classification and conditioning.Thus,an independently-developed portable conditioning device for spent radioactive sources are used to realize the conditioning classification and subpackage before its recycling and reusing.This device has the characteristics of demountable property,convenient transportation,flexible operation and low cost.Through the exemplary conditioning,classification and subpackage demonstration operation of the Co-60 spent radioactive sources with the activity of3.7E+13Bq,feasibility is verified for the conditioning scheme and approach,quickening the progress of the reusing of spent radioactive sources in China.To safeguard the occupational health of the staff operating the conditioning devices,the radiation shield is verified for the conditioning devices,so is its conditioning capacity with high activity.It is found that the influences of the diffuse sky radiation is not negligible,which caused by dose fields with great transmission effects due to the weak radiation protection on the top of shield.Through a thickened top of the shield,the conditioning devices have perfect radiation shield effect to safeguard the safety of the operating staff.