Alpha Spectrometric Determination of Trace Level of ^239-240Pu and ²³⁸Pu Uranium Compounds and Solutions

Abstract

Plutonium / Uranium / Anion-exchange chromatography / Extraction chromatography / Alpha spectrometry / ElectrodepositionSummary An accurate and reliable analytical method has been developed for the measurement of low-level of plutonium nuclides (^''Pu, 239 -24oj>y^ in uranium Compounds and solutions by alpha spectrometry, with emphasis on the purification of plutonium nuclides from uranium isotopes and their a emitting decay radionuclides. The method mainly consists of Chromatographie separations. TWo steps of purification are necessary, the first one using a REILLEX™ HPQ (anion-exchange macroporous resin) Chromatographie column and the second one consisting in extraction chromatography with trioctylamine (TOA). ^"Pu was used as isotopic tracer: plutonium recovery yields for the entire process were found dose to 90% and the minimum detectable Pu activity was about lOmBq/sample for a counting time of 5 hours using a grid Chamber, after the implementation of a Separation with a good decontamination factor (higher than 10^) of plutonium vs. uranium. For a lower detection limit, it is necessary to increase the counting time.

An alternative method for chronometric determinations involving curium

“…Simultaneous measurement of plutonium and trans-plutonium isotopes is necessary for applications ranging from environmental monitoring and radioactive waste management, [1][2][3][4][5][6] to nuclear forensics and nuclear safeguards, [7][8][9][10] to bioassay, [11][12][13] and basic nuclear physics research. [14][15][16][17] While traditional radiometric methods using yield tracers provide quantitative isotopic information, they typically require labor intensive separations that can reduce overall sample throughput for routine analyses.…”