Messung der Krypton-85-und Xenon-133-Aktivität der atmosphärischen Luft / A Method for Measurement of the Krypton-85 and Xenon-133-content in the Atmosphere

Abstract

Abstract To measure the 85Kr and 133Xe content in the atmosphere approximately 60 m3 of dried and CO2-removed air are pumped through activated carbon (pressure 300 torr, temperature 77 K) during one week. When sampling time is over, the carbon is heated to 570 K. This gives a gas sample of 41 with more than 90% of the atmospherical krypton and xenon within two hours. With a further step of enrichment, the volume of sample is reduced to 100 ml. The final separation and purification of the rare gases from O2, N2, CO and CO2 is made chromatographically. First the xenon is sepa­rated in a column filled with molecular sieve (5A) at 390 K, after that the krypton is separated in a column with activated charcoal at room temperature with methane as a "carrier gas" and is simultaneously transported to a proportional counter (230 ml). In the first half-year of 1977 the activity levels of 85Kr and 133Xe ran to 17.7 respectively 0.19 pCi/m3 air. The variations of the rare gas-activities are indeed rather high. The xenon-activities are not correlated with the krypton-activities. In a preliminary discussion we try to find reasons for these variations.