Rapid column extraction method for actinides and 89/90Sr in water samples

Abstract

The SRS Environmental Laboratory analyzes water samples for environmental monitoring, including river water and ground water samples. A new, faster actinide and strontium 89/90 separation method has been developed and implemented to improve productivity, reduce labor costs and add capacity to this laboratory. This method uses stacked TEVA Resin ®, TRU Resin® and Sr-Resin® cartridges from Eichrom Technologies (Darien, IL, USA) that allows the rapid separation of plutonium (Pu), neptunium (Np), uranium (U), americium (Am), curium (Cm) and thorium (Th) using a single multi-stage column combined with alpha spectrometry. By using vacuum box cartridge technology with rapid flow rates, sample preparation time is minimized. The method can be used for routine analysis or as a rapid method for emergency preparedness. Thorium and curium are often analyzed separately due to the interference of the daughter of Th-229 tracer, actinium (Ac)-225, on curium isotopes when measured by alpha spectrometry. This new method also adds a separation step using DGA Resin ®, (Diglycolamide Resin, Eichrom Technologies) to remove Ac-225 and allow the separation and analysis of thorium isotopes and curium isotopes at the same time.

A new method for the determination of plutonium and americium using high pressure microwave digestion and alpha-spectrometry or ICP-SMS

“…Applying this approach, we were able to determine using ICP-SMS the 239 Pu content in soil solutions from a sub-alpine area. In the worst case, we were required to withdraw 14 …”

“…For several decades, liquid-liquid extraction and ion exchange chromatography were the best approaches [2,11]. Although these methods are still used [10,12,13], most of the recent methodologies are based on extraction chromatography resins using Eichrom Ò TEVA for Pu and TRU for Am [14][15][16]. Using these extraction chromatographic resins considerably reduces the time and reagent volumes required for the analysis [17].…”

New column separation method for emergency urine samples

“…After waiting 15 minutes, the solutions were filtered onto 0.1 micron 25 mm polypropylene filters (Resolve® filter-Eichrom Technologies) and counted by alpha spectrometry. 7 The SR Resin cartridges were placed on a vacuum box and rinsed with 10 ml of 8M HNO3. The Sr-90 was stripped from the Sr Resin using 10 ml of 0.05M HNO3 into 50 ml tubes.…”

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

“…• 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.…”