Recent Work on the Leakage of Aerosols through Capillaries that Model Container Seals

Abstract

A practical procedure has yet to be developed and accepted internationally to quantify the leakage of aerosols across the seals of radioactive transport containers. A novel procedure has been developed to study the penetration of glass microspheres through capillaries and orifices. This study extends the original work to include short capillaries that are more representative of the dimensions across a container seal and irregularly shaped particles. The penetration data showed a consistent relationship with the previous studies, and there was strong evidence to suggest a critical length of leakage path beyond which particle penetration falls to zero. Penetration rates did not differ substantially between spherical and irregularly shaped particles. The results indicated that the current SLR limit (5 × 10⁻⁵ Pa.m³.s^−l) for transport containers used in the UK is appropriate to prevent the leakage of micron-sized aerosol particles.