[ RadSafe ] Kr-85

[Franz Schönhofer]

Khalid,
 The answer depends mostly on the amount of Kr-85 you have to dispose of. If
it is a "small" industrial source, then usually the company which sold it
should be responsible to take it back, especially if a new one is purchased
and it is their obligation to care for disposal or recycling. If the source
was leaking it might be that all Kr-85 has already disappeared and there is
no need for disposal.
 Since Saudi Arabia has no nuclear power plants your problem sure is not
Kr-85 from such a plant. BTW to my knowledge the charcoal beds in nuclear
reactors are not used to withhold Kr-85 (how could they, taking the
relatively long half-life of Kr-85 into account!) but I-131, I-132 and
short-lived noble gases.
 I know, that Saudi Arabian legislation is rather close to the US
legislation, so you should consult your legislation for rules on disposal of
sources.

Due to reprocessing the concentration of Kr-85 was rising in the eighties of
last century yearly by about 5%. I do not know current rates. There exist
technically proven methods to remove Kr-85 from exhaust gases of
reprocessing plants but to my knowledge they are not used in any one. The
proposal was to fill it in cylinders and wait until most has decayed (more
than 100 years). Also deep sea disposal was under discussion but this is not
possible due to political treaties not to dump radioactive waste in the deap
sea.
 In principle release to the atmosphere would on a large scale not have any
impact, but as usually legislation has to be followed.
 Franz
2005/9/22, Khalid Aleissa <kaleissa at kacst.edu.sa>:
>
> I am intrested in others experince (procedures and rules) in disposing
> Kr-85
> gas.
> Please provide me with your knowledge or/and epxerince in this matter.
>
> Thnaks
>
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