Establishment of environmental sampling baseline of a nuclear facility using large geometry-secondary ion mass spectrometry (LG-SIMS)

The Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control (KINAC) operates the “environmental sampling program” which includes the collection, screening, analysis of samples, and evaluation of the resulting data. The goal of this project is to set up the nuclear material baseline in domestic nuclear facility, so that any future sampling results can then be evaluated using the facility baseline as a reference. For this purpose, 18 swipe samples from three points of the nuclear facility were collected, and the screening test using monochromatic micro-focusing X-ray fluorescence was conducted, followed by particle analysis of the collected swipe samples. The particle analysis was conducted using large geometry-secondary ion mass spectrometry. The MMXRF map was effectively applied for making a decision to select particles from samples for further particle analysis. Based on the results of particle analysis, the baseline for each selected point of the nuclear facility was established, and these datasets will be used as reference for verifying the absence of undeclared activities at the facility in the future. The results showed that the established baseline of the nuclear facility was consistent with the declared activities.