Academic literature on the topic 'Surface alpha radioactivity'

Among the most significant matrices in the field of environmental radioactivity, water is certainly included, being subject to monitoring and controls to safeguard the environment from possible anthropogenic contamination. The presence of radionuclides in water also constitutes a health risk to human, because its consumption increases the likelihood of incurring cancer. In authors’ laboratory, different experimental techniques were employed to measure radioactivity content of surface and drinking water, according to the Italian Legislation and to the Italian Institute for the Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) guidelines. Gamma spectrometry was employed to quantify the specific activity of gamma-emitters anthropogenic contaminants and natural radionuclides; liquid scintillation counting (LSC), to measure the activity concentration of tritium, radon and gross alpha and beta; total alpha/beta counting, with the thick source method, to detect about gross alpha and beta specific activity; emanometry, to estimate gas radon activity concentration.

Radon and its progeny concentration are measured at 1m height from surface of Earth in the premises of National Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Gadanki to observe the changes in activity concentration of radon particularly during instabilities that are occurring in the atmosphere. The measurements were carried out using AlphaGUARD and Alpha Progeny Meter for the measurement of radon and its progenies, respectively. It has been observed that, the changes in daily and weekly atmospheric radon levels are related to the stability or turbulence of the lower troposphere. The analysis reveals that from sunny windless days indicates growth and dissolution of the inversion layer. The study of radon concentrations during several atmospheric instabilities including period during Nilam cyclone, has shown interesting features, which are correlated with the conditions of stability or turbulence in the atmosphere.

Abstract In this research, the results of radon concentration, surface and mass exhalation rates, radium concentration, effective dose rate and the alpha index have been investigated in a number of 198 soil samples that have been collected from various residential locations of Halfa Aljadida area, Sudan. The can technique, containing CR-39 have been used. From our results, the average value of soil gas radon concentration was found to be 1.96±0.22 kBq·m−3. The average values of surface and mass exhalation rates were 1.73±0.19 Bq·m−2·h−1 and 34.79±3.87 mBq·kg−1·h−1, respectively. The radium concentration average value was 8.06±0.90 Bq·kg−1. While the average value of the effective dose rate was recorded to be 54.69±6.11 mSv·y−1. The average value of alpha index of studied samples was (4.03±0.45)×10−2. From the study, a good positive and linear correlation between radium concentration, surface and mass exhalation rates of soil samples were present. In addition to that, a positive and linear correlation between radium and radon concentrations was found. Finally, a comparison between the results and other findings was conducted and the results imply the fact that the area under consideration is safe as if the health hazard are mentioned.

Making use of gamma ray spectrometric analysis method, the activities of soil-borne radio-nuclides viz. 226Ra, 232Th and 40K in the surface soil samples from a specific village in coastal county has been determined. The surface soil of living environment in the Poovar village was used for the study. The activity concentration is used for evaluating various radiologically vital parameters such as levels of radium equivalent activity (Raeq), external hazard index (Hex), internal hazard index (Hin), absorbed gamma dose rate (D), outdoor and indoor annual effective dose (AED), representative gamma radioactivity level index (Iγ) and alpha index (Iα) in the region. The estimated radioactivity concentrations of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K was observed to fluctuate from below detectable level (BDL) of the instrument to 9 Bqkg−1, 21 Bqkg−1 to 36 Bqkg−1 and 453 Bqkg−1 to 585 Bqkg−1, respectively. Since all of the samples investigated in the study are within the advised limit, there are no radiation threats to the human beings in the region. The obtained information in this research can be used for future radiological mapping and impact assessments.

Abstract Precise measurements of radioactive impurity concentration in the detector materials have been established for various underground particle physics experiments. It is also important to measure the surface radioactive contamination on these materials because their decay products would potentially reduce the fiducial volume of the detector and would also produce background sources via radon emanation. In this study, descriptions on an α-ray imaging chamber based on a gaseous micro-time-projection chamber are reported. A detector upgrade to improve the sensitivity by a suppression of the background rate and a demonstration of alpha-ray imagings are also described.

Northern Sweden has been the object of intense metal mining in the last decades producing several water-filled open-pits, or pit lakes. Most of these pit lakes have been limed to maintain a good water quality and to prevent generation of acidic water that could leach the exposed rocks and release metals into water. The aim of this work was to examine the concentration of stable elements and naturally occurring radionuclides in water and sediment samples from pit lakes originating from non-uranium mining activities in Northern Sweden. Surface water and surface sediments were collected from 27 pit lakes in Northern Sweden. Water quality parameters, concentration of stable elements and radionuclides were measured by a water probe, ICP-MS and XRF, and alpha and gamma spectrometry, respectively. Furthermore, a multivariate statistical analysis (PCA) was performed on the water samples and sediments. In general, the quality of the surface water was good, but some lakes had low pH values (2.5–5.7), and high concentrations of Fe (up to 200 mg/L) and other metals (e.g. Zn, Cu). When relating the metal concentrations in sediments in pit lakes with the concentration found in natural lakes, some sites had relatively high levels of Cu, As, Cr and Pb. The activity concentration of 210Po, and U and Th isotopes in water and sediment samples were at environmental levels, as was the ambient dose equivalent rate at these sites (range 0.08–0.14 μSv/h).

A method is described for the preparation of rat pulmonary surfactant, radiolabelled specifically in the phosphatidylcholine species, which may be used for degradative studies of the lipoprotein complex. Intravenously administered [methyl-14C]choline chloride is maximally incorporated into alveolar surface surfactant 8 h after injection, and more than 97% of this radiolabel is present in the phosphatidylcholine fraction of the surfactant and, of this, 75% is associated with the dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine species. Electron microscopy indicates that the isolated surfactant has a similar physical form to that found at the alveolar surface. The mineral alpha-quartz can be used to increase the yield of surfactant lavaged from the lung surface, but the complex isolated from rats treated in this manner has a low specific radioactivity (less than 1000 d.p.m./mg) compared with that prepared from control animals (22860 d.p.m./mg).

Rare Physics event is playing a crucial role, not only in Fundamental Interaction Physics, but also in Astroparticle Physics and in Cosmology. These signals, if detected, would give an importatnt evidence of new Physics. The CUORE experiment (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) is a proposed tightly packed array of 988 TeO2 bolometers, each being a cube 125 cm3 on a side with a mass of 750 g. The array consists of 19 vertical towers, arranged in a compact cylindrical structure. Each tower will consist of 13 layers of 4 crystals. The design of the detector is optimized for ultralow-background searches. Neutrinoless double-beta decay (ββ0ν) is the main goal of CUORE. What is new is the fact that positive observation of neutrino oscillations gives new motivation for more sensitive searches. Neutrino oscillation experiments can only provide data on the mass differences of the neutrino mass-eigenstates. The absolute scale can only be obtained from direct mass measurements (β-decay end point measurements), or in the case of Majorana neutrinos, more sensitively by neutrinoless double-beta decay observation. ββ0ν is not the only exotic process which can be observed in the CUORE experiment. Other rare events, from cold dark matter, to rare nuclear decays and electron decay can in principle be studied with the CUORE experimental facility. I will discuss the last process in the 6th chapter. The topic which joins the exotic and rare processes discussed is the unwanted radioactive background which is inevitably present in the experimental measurements. CUORICINO, almost a single CUORE tower, was constructed as a smaller scale ex- periment and operated from december 2003 to June 2008. Besides being a sensitive experiment on 130Te double beta decay, CUORICINO is a conclusive test of CUORE. CUORICINO provided important results concerning both the technical performances of the bolometric tower (CUORE will be made of 19 such towers), the background level .In particular, one of the information gained is that the most probable candidates for the continuum background observed in the spectra, are the surface α contaminations of the copper mounting frame. Rare Physics event is playing a crucial role, not only in Fundamental Interaction Physics, but also in Astroparticle Physics and in Cosmology. These signals, if detected, would give an importatnt evidence of new Physics. The CUORE experiment (Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events) is a proposed tightly packed array of 988 TeO2 bolometers, each being a cube 125 cm3 on a side with a mass of 750 g. The array consists of 19 vertical towers, arranged in a compact cylindrical structure. Each tower will consist of 13 layers of 4 crystals. The design of the detector is optimized for ultralow-background searches. Neutrinoless double-beta decay (ββ0ν) is the main goal of CUORE. What is new is the fact that positive observation of neutrino oscillations gives new motivation for more sensitive searches. Neutrino oscillation experiments can only provide data on the mass differences of the neutrino mass-eigenstates. The absolute scale can only be obtained from direct mass measurements (β-decay end point measurements), or in the case of Majorana neutrinos, more sensitively by neutrinoless double-beta decay observation. ββ0ν is not the only exotic process which can be observed in the CUORE experiment. Other rare events, from cold dark matter, to rare nuclear decays and electron decay can in principle be studied with the CUORE experimental facility. I will discuss the last process in the 6th chapter. The topic which joins the exotic and rare processes discussed is the unwanted radioactive background which is inevitably present in the experimental measurements. CUORICINO, almost a single CUORE tower, was constructed as a smaller scale ex- periment and operated from december 2003 to June 2008. Besides being a sensitive experiment on 130Te double beta decay, CUORICINO is a conclusive test of CUORE. CUORICINO provided important results concerning both the technical performances of the bolometric tower (CUORE will be made of 19 such towers), the background level .In particular, one of the information gained is that the most probable candidates for the continuum background observed in the spectra, are the surface α contaminations of the copper mounting frame. Silicon Barrier Detectors (SBD) are a powerful instrument to study charged particle radiation (like α particles). During my PHD one of the activity I focused on was the optimization of the SBD used in the radioactivity laboratoty of the the University of Milano Bicocca A complete procedure for the calibration of these detectors was set- tled. In fact, one of the main problem to face with, (due also to the extremely low activity measured), is the discrimination of their intrinsic background level from that of the sample measured. The SBD are always operated in Ultra Low Background vacuum chambers. In the context of the discrimination of the background, evaluation of the muon and shower contribution to the acquired spectra were performed. The latter were done through a coincidence measurement between the SBD and a scintillator. The result of the measurements and of their ananlysis showed that the major contribution to the spurious counts comes from the showers. A dedicated acquisition was done for the detectors, with a module which lets to have event’s temporal imformation. To give limits on the surface activities of the samples the use of Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is mandatory in order to have an estimation of the efficiency of energy detection. The use of the MC simulation was optimized: different depht and profiles of contamination were studied and tested. This optimization allows to give limits on surface 232Th, 238U and 210Pb-Po activities which depend on the depht of contamination. The drastic reduction of the sensitivity achieved (from 10−5 to 10−7 and 10−8 Bq · cm2 fo the cleanest material measured) is due to the described optimiza- tion. Last, but non least, the SBD measurements played a crucial role in the material selection, depending on the radiopurity required, for the CUORE experiment. Concering the ββ0ν, a crucial role, in the theoretical interpretation of the experimental result, is played by the Nuclear Matrix Element (NME) used to transalte the observed rate (in the energy region where the signal is expected) in a sensitivity on the effective neutrino mass |mν|. I performed a study in order to compare and understand the different nuclear models used nowadays, and the respective Phase Space Factors (PSF) used. This study allows to compare, in a quantitative way, the different experiments on neutrinoless double beta decay. A database was realized in which all the inputs are collected, comments and references on NME and PSF are illustrated and the kind of short range correlation is used in the calculation of the matrix element. The database, with the information collected and properly organized, allows to evaluate the sensitivity on |mν| of all the experiments now at work, depending on the nuclear model used. The difficulties encountered in the comprehension of the nuclear models and in the PSF used are due to three main reasons. • the PSF shoul be in principle standard and unambiguous, not depending on the nuclear model, but just on the initial and final states JP . This is not what the study showed: the PSF, in the different formulation, show discrepancies of a factor 5 or 6. • the nuclear models assume different approaches to the process and should lead to different results. Two models, i.e., the Shell Model and the IBM (Interactive Boson Model) have a similar approach, but they differ in handling the states which are ’far from closed shells’, so in the handling of the nuclear deformations. The QRPA, (in the version pnQRPA an rQRPA, Quasi Random Phase Approximation), have a different approach to the previous models, because it introduces the concept of quasiparticle, which are states built with a ’mixing’ of creation and annihilation operators (a theory very similar to BCS for the superconductivity) and it leads to a correlation between particles and holes and not just between particles (gph and not only gpp pairing). • the SRC (shot range correlation) used should be univocal, but this is not the case. The theoreticians don’t give a clear choice of the proper SRC to be used. Finally I performed a study on the electron decay, in the channel e− ← γ + ν, using CUORICINO data. Moreover I performed a calculation of the cross section for the process, assuming a massless neutrino in the first step and a massive neutrino in the second step. The study of the channel implies to evaluate the signature of the decay, which depends on the material and atomic shell from which the electron disappears. In fact the visible energy changes if the decay happens in the active volume of the detector or in the surroinding materials: Ev = (mec2−Eb) 2 + EX = (mec2+Eb) 2 where me is the electron mass, Eb is the binding energy, EX is the X-ray energy following the decay. The last term is included only if the decay happens inside the active volume of the detectors. Thus, there are several signatures which can be discriminated from the background only if the detector resolution is excellent. Moreover the doppler broadening of the lines, due to the orbital motion of the electron in the shell, must be considered. I thus studied the different signatures in several materials, (potential emitters). In the analysis I included the efficiences for the signatures, using Monte Carlo simulations, expressely conformed to experimental set-up and charachteristics (such as real thresholds, active channels). The correction to the efficiencies, i.e. the loss of ’good events’, due to the analysis cuts, was evaluated. All the analysis done led to a promising result for this decay, in competition with the current limits given from other collaborations. The cross section calculation allowed to give an estimation of the CNC parameter, using as inputs the available experimental data.

Fission-track dating, one of the more recent techniques involving the use of radioactivity, has developed one of the widest ranges of applications. Dates of objects have been obtained ranging from 6 months to 109 years BP. Volcanic tephra, obsidian, man-made and basaltic glass, meteorites, and mica have been dated. A more apt term is nuclear-track dating because fissionable elements do not have to be present in the material. Fission, which produces one form of nuclear track, is a rare mode of radioactive decay. A more common decay is alpha decay, which produces a different type of track. Uranium 238 fissions spontaneously and has a well-defined half-life. It also fissions in the presence of neutrons such as are produced by reactors, accelerators, or neutron "howitzers." About 99.27% of all uranium is uranium 238. Robert L. Fleischer, Paul B. Price, and Robert M. Walker, who have done most of the original work in this field, have determined that most minerals contain this isotope in amounts from a few parts per billion (ppb) to many parts per million (ppm). These researchers devised a chart which characterizes the ease of use of this technique as a function of the uranium concentration. A high uranium concentration allows an "easily measured" age where the observer spends an hour at the microscope counting chemically etched fission tracks. For "considerable labor," 40 hours of such work is assumed. Ancient synthetic glass typically contains 1-2 ppm of uranium, so most glasses older than 8,000 years are datable. Most pottery clay contains about 5 ppm of uranium in either the clay itself or other minerals that occur as inclusions. It is very probable that some pottery clays or the mineral inclusions, such as zircon, might contain higher concentrations than this, which would make the age measurement lie between "easily" and "with considerable labor." It is important to point out that mineral inclusions such as zircons or micas act as solid-state detectors in that they register fissions as a track on the surface in contact with the pottery clay. Both fission and alpha events can do this.

We present an ionized air transportation type alpha radioactivity monitor to efficiently perform the clearance level inspection for large size uranium waste and its detection performance. In previous work, we developed a prototype monitor with an about 1000 mm cubic measurement chamber to measure the cut waste. However, in a survey of target waste, we found that it is desired to measure not only the cut waste but also the lengthy waste such as uncut cylinders. Therefore, we developed an alpha radioactivity monitor with a long and large measurement chamber (effective sizes: 500 mm x900 mm x3200 mm) for long and large cylindrically-shaped waste (maximum size: 300 mm in diameter and 3000 mm in length, weight: 10 to 200 kg). We aimed <1000 Bq as the target value of Alpha radioactivity Detection Limit (ADL), which is one-tenth of the clearance level (1 Bq/g) for 10 kg waste. The issue to size up the measurement chamber was to suppress the reduction in sensitivity of alpha radioactivity. To overcome this, we enhanced an air fan power and optimized an ion sensor design. Using this monitor, we measured and evaluated ADLs for several cases supposing the practical applications (long cylinders with a smooth surface, bump, or concavity and convexity, and pipes with several small diameters). The resulting ALD ranged from 60 Bq to 120 Bq and sufficiently satisfied the target ALD (<1000 Bq). In conclusion, this monitor has sufficient performance for the clearance level inspection for large uranium waste.

In the nuclear power industry, many techniques are used to confirm that items are suitable for free-release. These techniques usually involve monitoring of the items with at least one type of radiometric instrument, to ensure that no significant quantity of man-made radioactivity is present. These monitoring techniques depend on the stage in the clearance process, the application and the size of the article being monitored. The UK Radioactive Substances Act has a Substances of Low Activity (SoLA) exemption which allows for articles and waste that have a man-made radioactive content less than 0.4 Bq g−1, to be classified as non-radioactive and be discharged from site in similar fashion to conventional wastes. Identifying whether the waste meets the criteria is technically challenging due to the low level of this exemption. Consequently the detection limits of most common portable radiation protection instrumentation is higher than this level. Historically portable alpha and beta contamination instruments are used as part of the clearance process; these are reasonably effective at monitoring the surface of an object for the presence of radioactivity, but far less so for bags of waste where alpha and beta emissions are easily absorbed within the waste. Portable gamma only contamination instruments have proved effective where some contaminants emit gamma radiation. However even these instruments have some difficulty in confirming that an article is “free” from man-made radioactivity where the mass of the article is below a critical mass. In this industry, the radioactive fingerprint will typically include an easily detectable gamma emitting radionuclide such as 60Co, or 137Cs, which may be used as a tracer for other radionuclides which cannot be easily detected with such an instrument. Installed clearance (bag) monitors are very effective where the user has a good knowledge of the radioactive fingerprint, and where there are significant (more than 10%) gamma emitting radionuclides in the fingerprint. They are ineffective where pure alpha and beta emitters dominate the radioactive fingerprint. These monitors are capable of monitoring to 1/10 of the SoLA exemption level for 60Co, with a small variation in response across the volume of the measurement chamber. Inevitably these instruments are also sensitive to NORM, so a good knowledge of NORM activity concentrations is each waste stream is required for adequate compensation. Vehicle monitors are useful for reassurance monitoring, although due to the variable nature of each waste consignment and the high background count rate, their high detection limit means they are not suitable as the sole means of free release monitoring.

Since the mid-1960s the VNIINM has been developing decontamination techniques for a variety of materials and contaminants for Russian nuclear engineering needs. 1. Early in the development, chemical decontamination was the most commonly used method. According to the nature of contaminants and contaminated material, mineral acids, alkali, mineral and organic oxidants and reductants were used. For best results, complex forming agents were sometimes added. However, in spite of widespread use of chemical decontamination at the USSR nuclear facilities, this technique has a drawback of producing a great deal of secondary liquid radwaste. Since the early 1970s attention has focused on the reduction of radwaste. Currently, optimized electrochemical and strippable coating methods are showing the greatest promise. 2. A low-waste dry decontamination technique based on application of readily strippable polymeric (protecting, decontaminating, immobilizing) coats has been developed and tested in the laboratory and wide scale. A low-waste dry decontamination technique based on application of readily strippable polymeric (protecting, decontaminating, immobilizing) coats has been developed and tested in the laboratory and wide scale. 3. VNIINM has developed a few electrochemical decontamination procedures and equipment surface decontamination. 4. One of VNIINM’s laboratory rooms which had been put to prolonged storage after an incidental alpha-radioactivity release was chosen for tests and demonstration. At first, the radioactivity levels inside the room on all the surfaces were measured. On outer surfaces, the alpha-activity was 1–15 α-particles/min.cm2, the gammaactivity varied from 720 to 2880 mkrem/s. The room was equipped with instrumentation and apparatures located in three chains of gloveboxes and hot cells for handling Pu-bearing materials. Continuous checks of the airborne radioactivity and the personnel residence time inside the room were performed. 5. Old Pu extraction facility (U-5) was decontaminated and decommissioning in VNIINM in 1999–2000. This facility is a system of interconnected working areas housing process equipment located in 4 floor building and includes more than 20 laboratories rooms, 2 “hot cells”, few sealed contaminated rooms and two extraction shaft. Industrial separation technologies have been tested on the facility for 20 years since 1947. The first USSR Pu was obtained here. Practically all rooms were contaminated with Pu, Cs, Sr etc. The experimental equipment of two hot cells (63 m2 each cell) control and service rooms was decontaminated and certified. The dissolution equipment, the metering tank compartment was decommissioned and removed. 16 laboratory rooms with a total area of 300 m2 were rehabilitated and certified. The amount of waste removed exceeded 12 500 kg. All rooms rehabilitated were certified and accepted by sanitary control service for further use. 6. At the time old contaminated room contains a non standard radiochemical equipment includes glove boxes is under decommissioning procedure. This project started at 2002.

Abstract Starting in 2002, Belgoprocess will proceed with the treatment and conditioning of some 200 m3 of widely varying high- and medium-level wastes from earlier research and development work, to meet standard acceptance criteria for later disposal. The gross volume of primary and secondary packages amounts to 2,600 m3. The wastes have been kept in decay storage for up to 30 years. The project was started in 1998. Operation of the various processing facilities will take 7–8 years. The overall volume of conditioned waste will be of the order of 800 m3. All conditioned waste will be stored in appropriate storage facilities onsite. At present (August, 2000), the construction of a new processing facility is in progress and the call for venders for the equipment has been sent out. Several cells of the Pamela vitrification facility onsite will be adapted for the treatment of high-level and highly α-contaminated wastes; low-level β/γ wastes will be treated in the existing facility for supercompaction and conditioning by embedding into cement (CILVA). The bulk of these wastes, of which 95% are solids, the remainder consisting of mainly solidified liquids, have been produced between 1967 and 1988. They originate from various research programmes and reactor operation at the Belgian nuclear energy research centre SCK•CEN, isotope production, decontamination and dismantling operations. The wastes are stored in 4800 primary packages, of which 700 contain 120 g (5.1012 Bq) radium. Half the radium inventory is present in 25 containers. The presence of radium in waste packages, resulting in the emission of radon gas, requires particular measurements and the welding of packages for storage, in order to allow a correct interpretation of alpha measurements onsite. The total activity at the moment of production amounted to 18,811 TBq β/γ and 34.4 TBq α, with individual packages emitting up to 555 TBq β/γ and 2.2 TBq α. According to calculations, the β/γ activity has decreased to some 2,000 TBq, with individual packages up to 112 TBq. The extreme diversity of the wastes is not only expressed in their radiological characteristics, but also in their chemical composition, physical state, the nature and condition of the packages. Radioactivity ranges between 0.01 mCi to 1,000 Ci per package. Some packages contain resins, Na, NaK and Al containing wastes, poison rods, residues of fuel elements. Although most of the liquid wastes are solidified, a small fraction — both aqueous and organic — still remains liquid. Primary packages may be plastic bags, metal boxes, wire gauze, La Calène boxes; secondary packages may be steel drums and concrete containers. Solid wastes may be sources, counters, control and poison rods, nuclear fuel residues, filters, synthetic materials, metals, resins, granulates, rock, sludges, cables, glass … Some 1000 primary packages are stored in a dry storage vault comprising 20 concrete cells, while 3800 primary packages are stored in some 2,000 concrete containers, on a concrete floor, surrounded by an earth bank to the height of the waste stacking and covered by a metal construction. At present, the annual production of similar wastes amounts to 2 m3 divided over some 30 containers. Generally, the primary waste packages will be loaded in 80 l drums (an average of 2 packages per drum), and compacted in a 150 t hydraulic press. The pellets will be collected in 100 l drums (an average of 3 pellets per drum). Low-level β/γ waste is transferred to the CILVA facility for further treatment, while the other 100 l drums are filled up with sand and, in the case of radium-contaminated wastes, tight-welded. Subsequently, the 100 l drums are loaded into 400 l drums and embedded into cement. Certain packages, for example solidified radium-contaminated liquids in welded metal containers, are conditioned as such in overpacks. Specific procedures will be established for the various non-standard wastes, such as sources, control and poison rods, resins and filters, fuel residues. The new processing facility is being built partly over the dry storage vaults, in the immediate vicinity of the already covered storage area. It comprises 1) feeder locks for the introduction of the various waste packages; 2) a dispatching cell in which the primary packages are loaded into 80 l drums; 3) the processing cell in which the 80 l drums are compacted and the pellets loaded into 100 l drums; and either sent to the CILVA facility (low-level β/γ wastes), or the Pamela facility (highly active and/or heavily α-contaminated), or further treated in 4) the transport area, in which radium and medium-level waste containing drums are conditioned into cement; 5) the measurement and characterisation cell, in which the conditioned waste is characterized by gamma spectrometry, and checked for compliance with maximum allowed surface contamination and dose rate in view of interim storage in the appropriate facilities onsite. Ideally, gamma spectrometry measurements are carried out on the primary packages, but due to the extreme diversity of these packages, ranging from plastic bags containing cardboard to highly active steel valves, preference was given to measurements on the conditioned wastes, or at least on already pre-compacted wastes in the case of treatment in the 2,000 t press of the CILVA facility. Thus tremendous problems of calibration can be largely avoided. All operations are remotely controlled. Transfers between buildings are carried out within appropriately shielded containers and secondary wastes will be treated in existing facilities onsite.