Measurements of Plutonium Isotopes in Urine at Microbecquerel Levels: AMS Results of a NIST

Individual Radiation Protection Monitoring in the Marshall Islands: Enewetak Atoll (2010-2012)

“…Methods validation testing under the Marshall Islands Plutonium Urinalysis Program has included the labs participation in an interlaboratory exercise organized by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The results of this exercise clearly demonstrate that Accelerator Mass Spectrometry is well suited for detection of μBq concentrations of plutonium-239 and plutonium-240 in urine (Figure 5)(Marchetti et al, 2002). An independent report on the results of this intercomparison exercise was recently published in the open scientific literature(McCurdy et al, 2005).…”

Review of Methods and Instruments for Determining Undeclared Nuclear Materials and Activities

“…Comparison by a second laboratory showed that the measured content of 239 Pu and 240 Pu in "real world" sample are precise down to ∼10 6 239 Pu atoms. 41 In the case of uranium where typical environmental samples yield about 1 µg of uranium, the current detection limit is 10 −9 for the 236 U/ 238 U ratio 42 and in the range of 10 −10 to 10 −11 by measuring milligram-sized samples. 43 This corresponds to a detection limit of around 1 femtogram for 236 U, which allows for a reliable estimation of the irradiated uranium content in the environment.…”

Actinide measurements by accelerator mass spectrometry at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

“…Our concentration on the measurement of Pu isotopes has been driven, in part, by the need of the US DOE Marshall Islands Program for low-level measurements of Pu isotopes in human urine samples. To obtain an independent evaluation of our capabilities for the low-level measurement of Pu in human urine, we participated in the "Second Laboratory Intercomparison Study for the Determination of µBq Quantities of 239 Pu in Synthetic Urine by Mass Spectrometric and Fission Track Analyses"[11]. The 239 Pu results obtained by AMS measurement at LLNL for the NIST prepared synthetic urine samples are shown inFig.…”