Nuclear power plant decommissioning is a difficult process that combines industrial decommissioning techniques, radiation safety standards, and legal requirements for the final disposal of nuclear waste. The goal of nuclear decommissioning is to completely purge the plant of all radioactive material so that it can be released from regulatory oversight. The range of corrosion products generated on the steel surface are known to have a significant impact on the corrosion process of steel. Corrosion products have a complicated structure. The corrosion products are created when metallic components, mostly iron, react with oxygen and water that are drawn from the atmosphere, and their structure is then significantly influenced by environmental factors. Quantitative characterisation of the atomic scale structure of corrosion products is critically needed for identifying the corrosion products reliably. This thesis provides the characterization process of corrosion products formed on the steel surfaces and this process was executed with the help of XRD (X-ray Diffraction), SEM/EDS Scanning Electron Microscope/ Energy Dispersive Spectrometry, and Raman spectroscopy. Within the scope of this project, besides characterization of steel samples, Loviisa ground water and synthetic water samples which have been in a long-term contact with activated steel samples were also examined. Separation processes was carried out for determining Fe-55 and Ni-63 in the waters and the presence of Co-60 was removed from the samples before the activity determination of Fe-55 and Ni-63 by LSC (Liquid Scintillation Counting). This master's thesis has been carried out in connection with the DEMONI project, which has been a coordinated project of VTT and the University of Helsinki (KYT2022 Research Program). The outcome of the thesis will benefit possible decommissioning and disposal strategies for the nuclear power plant's reactor pressure vessels.

This paper reports the results obtained in a Nordic Nuclear Safety Research project during the second intercomparison exercise for the determination of difficult to measure radionuclides in decommissioning waste. Eight laboratories participated by carrying out radiochemical analysis of H-3, C-14, Cl-36, Ca-41, Fe-55 and Ni-63 in an activated concrete. In addition, gamma emitters, namely Eu-152 and Co-60, were analysed. The assigned values were derived from the submitted results according to ISO 13,528 standard and the performance assessments were determined using z scores. The measured results were compared with activation calculation result showing varying degree of comparability.