Isotope Dilution Alpha Spectrometry for the Determination of Plutonium Concentration in Irradiated Fuel Dissolver Solution: IDAS and R-IDAS

A novel approach for the determination of 238Pu by thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) using interfering element correction methodology

“…These types of Pu samples can be generated during IDAS [5] on Pu as well as ID-TIMS of Pu using 238 Pu as a spike and in such cases, the present methodology can be easily used for Pu analysis by TIMS. It is worth mentioning that in the present methodology, since 238 U/ 235 U atom ratio to be used in IEC approach, is determined from the same filament loading, pick-up or contamination of Pu sample with small amounts of U during sample processing will not affect the data obtained for 238 Pu isotope in the sample.…”

“…Accurate data on 238 Pu/ 239 Pu atom ratio is important for various applications in nuclear science and technology [4][5][6][7]. These include the development of isotope correlations, refinement of computer codes in reactor physics calculations to calculate the build-up of different Pu isotopes, the use of 238 Pu as a tracer (spike) in isotope dilution alpha spectrometry and the possibility of employing 238 Pu as a tracer (spike) in isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS), etc.…”

Chemically selective polymer substrate based direct isotope dilution alpha spectrometry of Pu

“…240 Pu cannot be used as a spike for IDAS experiments since the energy of the alpha particles emitted by 240 Pu (5.168 MeV) is close to that emitted by 239 Pu (5.155 MeV). IDAS using 238 Pu as a spike and reverse-IDAS using 239 Pu as a spike were reported for the determination of Pu concentration [33,34]. However, in order to produce good quality alpha source for IDAS, electrochemical deposition of Pu was carried out which is laborious and time consuming.…”

Effect of radioactive decay of Pu isotopes on the determination of Pu concentration with high accuracy by isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) and isotope dilution alpha spectrometry (IDAS)

“…tope dilution alpha spectrometry (IDAS). In our laboratory, we have developed and demonstrated the use of 240 Pu and 238 Pu as spikes (tracers), respectively, for IDMS [1,2] and IDAS [3] experiments on Pu. In the IDMS experiments, we have used Pu containing about 29 atom% of 240 Pu as a spike for Pu from low burnt fuels with 239 Pu abundance of 90 atom% or higher.…”