AUTOMATED SEPARATION AND MEASUREMENT OF RADIOXENON FOR THE COMPREHENSIVE TEST BAN TREATY

A fully automatic radioxenon sampler/analyzer (ARSA) has been develope d and demonstrated for the collection and quantitative measurement of the four xenon radionuclides, Xe-131m(11.9 d), Xe-133m(2.2 d), (133Xe) (5.2 d), and Xe-135(9.1 hr), in the atmosphere. These radionuclides ar e important signatures in monitoring for compliance to a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Activity ratios of these radionuclides permit source attribution. Xenon, continuously and automatically separated f rom the atmosphere. is automatically analyzed by electron-photon coinc idence spectrometry providing a lower limit of detection of about 100 mu Bq/m(3). The demonstrated detection limit is about 100 times better than achievable with reported laboratory-based procedures for the sho rt-time collection intervals of interest.