Sequential isotopic determination of plutonium, thorium, americium and uranium in the air filter and drinking water samples around the WIPP site

Determination of plutonium isotopes in environmental samples with triisooctylamine and alpha spectrometry

“…Moreover U and Po isotopes do not interfere with Pu isotopes for measurements by alpha spectrometry and the achieved DFs are quite enough. DFs for U, Po and Th with a single (column) extraction scheme are typically up or around 10 3 regardless of the resin or extractant used: anion exchange [3,8,10] or extraction chromatography resin-TEVA, TRU [2,8]. That's why application of double (for alpha spectrometry) or even triple (for ICP-MS measurements) extraction schemes are applied for 10 5 -10 8 DFs of Pu from U, Po and Th in such environmental matrices as water, air, etc.…”

“…The salts were evaporated to dryness and burned in an oven for 3 h at 550°C to destroy any traces of TIOA and escape excess sulfuric acid as SO 3 .…”

“…• commercial TRU-resin Ò (Eichrom, USA)-mixture of carbamoyl-methylphosphine oxide (CMPO) and tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP) [1][2][3]; • tri-n-octylphosphine oxide (TOPO) [4];…”

“…The measurements are performed by: high resolution alpha spectrometry after electrodeposition of the purified Pu on stainless steel disks [6,7] or co-precipitation with rare-earth fluorides [1,3,13] such as NdF 3 , CeF 3 ; liquid scintillation spectrometry [18,19] and mass spectrometry [2,8,[10][11][12]. Mass spectrometry has been gathering momentum in the recent years for measurements of longlived alpha and beta radionuclides, but alpha spectrometry is still the preferred instrument for measurements of alpha radionuclides due to the relatively lower price and maintenance costs of the equipment.…”

Concentration of uranium in the drinking and surface water around the WIPP site

“…Plutonium was separated from americium and uranium using an anion exchange column (7 cm column long), which were pre-conditioned with 30 ml of 8 M HNO 3 . The fraction containing americium and uranium was separated using a TRU-resin extraction chromatography column in 2 M HNO 3 as described previously [5]. The individual actinides were then micro-co-precipitated with a Nd-carrier and counted using alpha spectrometry [6].…”