AbstractRadioactive mercury waste constitutes a significant challenge, as no approved disposal concept yet exists for such waste in Germany. This work describes a decontamination and measurement procedure for a possible clearance of mercury from nuclear facilities and release into reuse or conventional hazardous waste disposal to reduce the amount of mercury in a nuclear repository. The measurement setup and procedure were developed and evaluated including Monte-Carlo N-Particle® Transport Code (MCNP® and Monte Carlo N-Particle® are registered trademarks owned by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, manager and operator of Los Alamos National Laboratory, (Werner 2018, Werner 2017)), simulations to ensure conservative assumptions during the measurements. Results from decontaminated mercury samples show that a clearance pursuant to the German regulations would be feasible.
Recent Advances in Monte Carlo Methods at Los Alamos National Laboratory
