Isotopic analysis of plutonium impurity in neptunium target

Evaluation of Uranium-235 Measurement Techniques

“…A small fraction of the material will evaporate as ions, not atoms; these ions are directed with electrostatic lenses to a mass spectrometry (MS) system. TIMS is a destructive measurement and requires intensive sample preparation to separate the element of interest for isotopic analysis from the matrix; it must be introduced onto the ribbon filament in an elementally pure form (Noyes et al 2016). Care must be taken during this separation (often accomplished with some form of gas or liquid chromatography) that isotopic fractionation does not occur (i.e., the isotopic composition of the purified material must be the same as the composition of the original sample).…”