Untitled

Determination of Pu isotope concentrations and isotope ratio by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry: a review of analytical methodology

“…In addition, it enables the accurate determination of 239 Pu and 240 Pu, and hence their isotope ratio. So far, various types of mass spectrometric methods have been applied to the determination of concentration and isotope ratios of Pu isotopes, such as thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS), 10,49,50 accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), 33,[51][52][53] secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), 17,54 a Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS), P.O. Box 114, Yusong, Daejeon 305-338, Korea.…”

U/Th Series Radionuclides as Coastal Groundwater Tracers

“…Many studies have evaluated the behavior of select radionuclides in groundwater and surface water systems. ,, Recent advances in high-precision mass spectrometry , have opened new possibilities for more subtle interpretations in select long-lived U/Th series isotopes, such as U, Ra, Pa, and Th . However, these techniques have yet to be fully developed, and as a consequence, such data remain largely scarce and underutilized.…”

New ultra-sensitive radioanalytical technologies for new science

“…There have been several motivations for new developments of laboratory-based ultra-sensitive radioanalytical techniques in nuclear and environmental studies: (i) Levels of anthropogenic radionuclides after over 60 years of their injection to the environment have decreased considerably [ 1 – 4 , 18 – 20 ]; (ii) Sample size required for radiometric analyses should be comparable to mass spectrometry analyses (e.g. in seawater profile sampling Rosette systems with 10–20 L bottles should be used instead of large 200 L (for 137 Cs) or 400 L (for Pu isotopes) sampling containers [ 1 , 3 , 4 , 21 – 26 ]; (iii) Highly accurate, precise and traceable data are required for environmental and climate change studies, which would require detection limits below 1 nBq/g [ 1 – 4 , 27 – 31 ]; (iv) New scientific ideas—such as investigations of rare nuclear processes and decays, investigations of cosmic dust, solar variations, supernova explosions, deep-sea bottom studies, DNA studies, environmental biotechnology, environmental nanotechnology, climate change studies, etc., have not been possible to realize till now as they have been requiring new ultra-sensitive radioanalytical technologies [ 32 – 38 ], with sensitivities good enough to analyse even very small samples.…”