Radiation from spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is one of key factors affecting the dissolution process of SNF and the source term from repository. The dissolution rate of uranium dioxide (UO2) matrix of SNF is expected to control the release of radionuclides from SNF in contact with water under geological disposal conditions. Based on the oxidative dissolution mechanism, the solubility of UO2 can increase significantly if the reducing environment near the fuel surface is altered by water radiolysis caused by radiation from SNF. Therefore, the analysis of water radiolysis products such as radicals (·OH, ·OH2, eaq, ·H) and molecules (H3O+, H2, H2O2) is perquisite for studies on the rate of such dissolution process to determine oxidation/dissolution mechanism and related rate constants. In this study we examined the two-known spectroscopic methods developed for H2O2 determination; one is the luminol-based chemiluminescence (luminol-CL) method and the other is the spectrophotometry using ferrous oxidation-xylenol orange complexation (FOX). Their applicability for quantitative analysis of H2O2 in potential aqueous samples from SNF dissolution studies was evaluated in terms of the analytical dynamic range (ADR), the limit of detection (LOD) and the interfering effects of various metal ions possibly present in real samples. The luminol-CL method exploits the chemiluminescence reaction caused by luminol; when in the presence of a metallic catalyst (e.g., Cu2+, Co2+), luminol emits a blue light (425 nm) at pH 10- 11 in response to oxidizing agents such as hydrogen peroxide. Although a flow-through reaction system is routinely employed to enhance the analytical sensitivity we achieved the ADR up to ~200 μM and LOD < 1 μM by a batch-wise CL detection using conventional cuvette cells and an intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD). Interestingly, it turned out that the interfering effects of other metal ions (e.g., UO2 2+, U4+, Fe2+ and Fe3+) is minimal, which should be advantageous for the luminol-CL method to be employed for samples potentially containing other metal ions. On the other hand, the FOX method spectrophotometrically analyzes H2O2 based on the difference in color (or absorption spectra) of Fe-xylenol orange (XO) complexes. Initially, the Fe2+-XO complex was provided in working solutions at pH 3, which was subsequently mixed with samples having H2O2 and allowed for quantitative oxidation of Fe2+ to Fe3+. Typically, by monitoring the absorbance of Fe3+-XO complex at 560-580 nm (λmax) the ADR up to ~100 μM and LOD ~1.6 μM were achieved. However, it is found that interfering effects from M3+ and M4+ ions are significant; these interfering metal ions can form XO complexes so as to directly contribute the measured absorbance. In contrast, the influence from M2+ ions was found to be negligible. To summarize we conclude that both methods can be applied for H2O2 determination for aqueous samples taken from SNF dissolution tests. However, prior to applying the FOX method the metal ion composition in those samples should be thoroughly identified not to overestimate the H2O2 concentration of samples. More details of underlying chemical reactions in both methods will be discussed in the presentation.

방사성 액체폐기물에 함유되어 있는 우라늄의 추출제 또는 아미드 (amide) 화합물 추출제를 사용한 용매추출계에서 제 3상 생성 방지제로 사용되는 dihexyloctanamide(DHOA)을 합성하고, 이를 60Co 감마 방사선으로 조사시킬 때 생성된 방사선 분해생성물 (radiolysis product)을 정량 분석하였다. 방사선 조사된 DHOA에 대한 FT-IR 스펙트럼과 방사선 분해생성물에 대한 GC/MS 스펙트럼 그리고 GC/MS-SIM 방법으로 측정한 결과를 근거로 octanoic acid와 dihexylamine 2종의 방사선 분해생성물의 존재를 확인하였으며, 이들 2종 화합물의 표준시약과 tridecane을 내부표준물질(ISTD)로 사용하여 GC/MS-SIM 방법으로 정량 분석하였다. 방사선 분해생성물에 대한 총 이온 크로마토그램에서 나타난 머무름 거동, 분리도 및 해상도에서 정량 분석할 수 있는 결과를 얻었으며, 총 이온 크로마토그램에서 분리피크가 나타나는 시간은 octanoic acid는 8.65분, tridecane은 9.79분 그리고 dihexylamine은 10.27분 이었다. 그리고 DHOA의 방사선 흡수선량이 증가할수록 octanoic acid의 농도는 감소하였으며, dihexylamine의 농도는 증가하였다.

붕산폐액을 함유한 시멘트 및 파라핀 고화체, 폐이온교환수지를 함유한 시멘트 고화체 그리고 잡고체중의 제염지에 대하여 Co-60을 조사선원으로 하여 rads까지 조사하여 발생되는 분해가스의 종류 및 그의 발생량을 분석하였다. 그 결과 분해가스로는 및 등이 발생하였으며, 가 대부분을 차지하였다. 가스발생량은 폐기물과 고화매질의 종류에 따라 으로 상당한 차이를 보였으며, 폐이온교환수지를 함유한 고화체에서 가장 높은 분해가스 발생량을 보였다. 그리고 수소가스는 제염지 폐기물에서 가장 많이 발생하였다. 제염지의 는 0.12이었다.