Method for calculating the nuclide fingerprint based on sample measurements

摘要

A process stream, such as in a nuclear waste treatment operation, is monitored by measuring emissions of radiation for one or more radionuclides and using these measurements to calculate the proportions of total activity associated with different nuclides and thus the nuclide fingerprint. Two or more samples are collected from the process stream and the activities due to two or more known radionuclides are measured for the samples. The proportion of the total activity due to these radionuclides is calculated, e.g. from previous laboratory analysis, and the proportions are combined to give a function that relates the proportion of the measured radionuclides to the proportions of other radionuclides for which no direct measurement has been made in the samples.