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M Bruggeman

Publications and source records attributed to M Bruggeman.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

The in vivo assessment of thorium body burden by gamma ray sepctrometry.

Thorium is used in many different industrial technologies and is widely found in nature. Internal contamination with thorium is considered as highly hazardous because of its radiological and chemical toxicities, which depend on the chemical form in which thorium appears. The assessment of the thorium body burden is then of primary importance in detecting the risks of personal contamination, and for appropriate counteractions when contamination is detected. The in vivo assessment of the thorium lung burden is commonly achieved by gamma ray spectrometry of its progeny. Three methods for the assessment of thorium in the lungs are compared. In the first method, the radionuclide examined is 208Tl, measured with a Nal(TI) detector. This simple method can be affected by systematic errors due to 220Rn exhalation and because of the assumption of equilibrium between 232Th and 228Th. The second method, based on the measurement of the gamma rays emitted by 228Ac, requires the use of high-resolution gamma spectrometry (HPGe detectors). The accuracy of the thorium quantification is better with this technique. The third method is based on the measurement of exhaled 220Rn.

Body Burden↗
PubMed2000

Non-destructive assay methods for the free release of dismantling wastes

The determination of isotope specific activities, and above all, the identification of radioisotopes is an important issue in the waste management of nuclear wastes whatever their origin. Systems based on the detection of the gamma rays emitted by the radionuclides allow the non-destructive assay (NDA) of relatively large volumes of waste. Different NDA systems are commercially available for this purpose. NDA of waste items is subject to the influence of many different physico-chemical characteristics of the sample, most of which are generally not known. In many cases, however, NDA is the only approach that allows measuring these large samples. The unconditional free release of wastes originating from nuclear activities for a great deal relies on NDA systems and procedures for decision-making on free release. The assay of waste of very low activity and even the decision if a radionuclide has been detected or not, is very often difficult. The poor measurement precision, caused by the bad counting statistics, combined with a generally unknown bias of the measurement complicate the interpretation of the results, and accurate measurements are seldom obtained in these cases. The aim of the present paper is to give an overview of the efforts made at SCK-CEN to come to a consistent system that allows performing free release measurements, involving a high throughput of large amount of materials, as expected from a dismantling project.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2000

Quantification of transuranic elements by time interval correlation spectroscopy of the detected neutrons

The non-destructive quantification of transuranic elements in nuclear waste management or in safeguards verifications is commonly performed by passive neutron assay techniques. To minimise the number of unknown sample-dependent parameters, Neutron Multiplicity Counting (NMC) is applied. We developed a new NMC-technique, called Time Interval Correlation Spectroscopy (TICS), which is based on the measurement of Rossi-alpha time interval distributions. Compared to other NMC-techniques, TICS offers several advantages.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2000

Solidang, a computer code for the computation of the effective solid angle and correction factors for gamma spectroscopy-based waste assay

Detection efficiency calibration of gamma spectroscopy for waste assay systems is a difficult and time-consuming task. Commonly, reference waste packages are used for efficiency calibration but these are sometimes difficult to build, are expensive and have limited use since there is large variability of parameters which influence the assay. Numerical calibrations, however, are an interesting alternative and have begun to find more and more application in waste assay. A dedicated computer code, Solidang, has been developed to compute detection efficiencies for gamma waste assay. Solidang uses the effective solid angle approach to derive detection efficiency and aims at improving and facilitating the calibration of gamma waste assay systems and at serving as a tool to investigate the influence of the many system and sample parameters involved.

Journal Article↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Experience with peripheral vascular injures from 1965-1980].

The authors analyse a series of 45 vascular trauma treated during the period 1965-1980. It is very important to make a diagnosis as soon as possible and to limit the interval accident-operation. In 40% of our cases we had to operate rather late. Most of those cases were secondary transfers of other hospitals. Arteriography should be performed if there is any doubt. Now we always perform an angiogram during the operation. If there is any associated orthopedic injury, this is handled first, if possible by external fixation. A fasciotomy can be of value to save a limb. Any venous injury should be repaired also.

Angiography↗