Optical Absorption Spectra of Pu(IV) in Carbonate/Bicarbonate Media

Detection and Speciation of Transuranium Elements in Synthetic Groundwater via Pulsed-Laser Excitation

“…This work builds on the LPAS studies carried out by PATEL and ΤΑΜ [2] who first demonstrated high LPAS sensitivity in aqueous solution using microsecond excitation [3]and on actinide LPAS studies carried out by KIM and coworkers [4,5,6,7] who demonstrated high LPAS sensitivity at ambient temperature using nanosecond excitation. A significant advance reported here is achievement of high LPAS sensitivity at 90°C in carrying out speciation studies of Am 3+ in a carbonate solution.…”

Actinide(IV) and actinide(VI) carbonate speciation studies by PAS and NMR spectroscopies; Yucca Mountain Project: Milestone report 3031-WBS 1.2.3.4.1.3.1

“…The cornerstone technique is pulsed-laser photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS). This technique is rapidly gaining acceptance as the premiere method for determining actinide speciation in solution (Bennett et al, 1992;Berg et al, 1991a and b;Beitz et al, 1990;Okajima et al, 1990;Klenze and Kim, 1988;Beitz et al, 1988;Pollard et al, 1988;Eiswirth et al, 1985;Stumpe et al, 1984). The theoretical and experimental bases for the technique have been summarized in a number of review publications (Patel and Tam, 1981;Tam, 1986).…”

“…In this report, preliminary data are presented for Pu(IV) speciation in carbonate media using PAS spectroscopy (Chapter 2), and for Pu(VI) [as PuO22+] speciation in carbonate media using 13C NMR spectroscopy (Chapter 3). The Pu(IV) carbonate system was chosen for our initial work because it is the least well understood of all the oxidation states of plutonium, and the interpretation of spectroscopic data in previous reports on Pu(IV) carbonate speciation (Eiswirth et al, 1985) seems inconsistent. In addition, we have been concerned about the reported low relative abundance of the tetravalent oxidation 5 state compared to the penta-and hexavalent states of plutonium in the steady-state solutions resulting from the solubility studies in Well J-13 and UE25p#1 waters (Nitsche et al, 1987a and b;1992a-c).…”