Toward sustainable nuclear material management: a review of destructive methods for quantifying difficult-to-measure radionuclides in metallic waste

Abstract The decommissioning of nuclear facilities generates metallic waste containing difficult-to-measure radionuclides (DTMs), whose accurate quantification requires destructive analyses to support effective waste management. This review highlights recent advances in dissolution, radiochemical separation, and high-sensitivity detection for activation products, long-lived fission products, and exotic DTMs. Remaining challenges include sampling, matrix effects, and the lack of reference materials, highlighting the need for methodological standardization and regulatory harmonization.