Quick and easy radioactivity analysis of ash from biomass power plants

On the way to climate neutrality, energy production from biomass is becoming more and more important in many countries of the EU.

Wood fuels are produced in large quantities in countries that were affected by the reactor accident in Chernobyl. Cs-137, stored in the upper soil layer, is absorbed by plants, and accumulated in the ash during combustion. Ashes are used as raw materials for the cement industry and thus enter the direct human environment. For this reason, limits have already been defined in some EU countries.

You can create various nuclide lists of up to sixteen lines from an editable library with respect to your measuring problem. The acquired spectrum will be analysed for these lines by the advanced PSV (Peak Shape Verification) method. If a line becomes identified and verified, the weight-specific activity of the emitting nuclide will be calculated due to the integrated scale.

The SARAD Lab-Scout can be used to carry out many control measurements reliably, easily and promptly on site by the power plant operator himself.

The Lab-Scout, with the Lab-Scout Works operating software, is a very user-friendly measuring station for determining the weight-specific activity of material samples. This instrument operates utilising gamma spectroscopy using a large volume sodium iodide (NaI) scintillation detector with lead shielding enabling samples to be analysed safely, precisely, and quickly to ensure that the samples are within the requisite limit values.

The Lab-Scout requires minimal maintenance procedures and virtually no operator training to use; calibration is also quick and easy for any operator.  This simple, yet precise instrument offers three different analysis to determine net count rates, which can be assigned individually to each emission line selected for analysis.  This alleviates any doubts concerning the count rate determination as well as the systematic deviations caused by resolution-related overlapping of emission lines.

Results can be stored within the device so samples can be measured one after the other even by untrained personnel; the data is available for subsequent evaluation at the click of a mouse.