Rapid determination of actinides in seawater samples

Maxwell, Sherrod L.; Culligan, Brian K.; Hutchison, Jay B.; Utsey, Robin C.; McAlister, Daniel R.

doi:10.1007/s10967-014-3079-0

Cited by 40 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The extremely simple chemical procedure presented in this work cannot be straightforwardly applied to sample sizes of 10 L or more, because of the correspondingly increased burden from matrix elements. This drawback could be effectively reduced with further separation steps, like, e.g., the LaF 3 coprecipitation described in the work of Maxwell et al 12 The method developed by these authors could suggest, furthermore, the desirable idea of using a rare earth nuclide as nonisotopic tracer for the determination of the chemical and ionization yield of actinides. This perspective should be thoughtfully investigated for its suitability to AMS measurements, mainly due to the difference between the masses of actinides and lanthanides and the consequent mass fractionation effects in the spectrometer.…”

Section: ■ Conclusion and Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry of Actinides in Ground- and Seawater: An Innovative Method Allowing for the Simultaneous Analysis of U, Np, Pu, Am, and Cm Isotopes below ppq Levels

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

(236)U, (237)Np, and Pu isotopes and (243)Am were determined in ground- and seawater samples at levels below ppq (fg/g) with a maximum sample size of 250 g. Such high sensitivity was possible by using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) at the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA) with extreme selectivity and recently improved efficiency and a significantly simplified separation chemistry. The use of nonisotopic tracers was investigated in order to allow for the determination of (237)Np and (243)Am, for which isotopic tracers either are rarely available or suffer from various isobaric mass interferences. In the present study, actinides were concentrated from the sample matrix via iron hydroxide coprecipitation and measured sequentially without previous chemical separation from each other. The analytical method was validated by the analysis of the Reference Material IAEA 443 and was applied to groundwater samples from the Colloid Formation and Migration (CFM) project at the deep underground rock laboratory of the Grimsel Test Site (GTS) and to natural water samples affected solely by global fallout. While the precision of the presented analytical method is somewhat limited by the use of nonisotopic spikes, the sensitivity allows for the determination of ∼10(5) atoms in a sample. This provides, e.g., the capability to study the long-term release and retention of actinide tracers in field experiments as well as the transport of actinides in a variety of environmental systems by tracing contamination from global fallout.

show abstract

Section: ■ Conclusion and Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry of Actinides in Ground- and Seawater: An Innovative Method Allowing for the Simultaneous Analysis of U, Np, Pu, Am, and Cm Isotopes below ppq Levels

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the case of uranyl(VI), {UO 2 2+ }, and neptunyl(V), {NpO 2 + }, these elements possess an intricate inorganic/organic speciation since more than fourteen complexes from hydroxo to carbonate adducts going through polynuclear and mixed species with humic substances in aquatic systems have already been reported. See DOI: 10.1039/ c4dt03547j a uranium and 10 −14 M for neptunium. The Fukushima accident, even though the amount of actinides released has been reported to be very low, 5,9 has not only shed light on the need for rapid methods to determine the presence of radionuclides in seawater 10 but also underlined the lack of speciation data on radionuclides and, in particular, actinides within the marine matrix in interaction with living organisms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

XAS and TRLIF spectroscopy of uranium and neptunium in seawater

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Seawater contains radionuclides at environmental levels; some are naturally present and others come from anthropogenic nuclear activity. In this report, the molecular speciation in seawater of uranium(VI) and neptunium(V) at a concentration of 5 × 10(-5) M has been investigated for the first time using a combination of two spectroscopic techniques: Time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence (TRLIF) for U and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) for U and Np at the LIII edge. In parallel, the theoretical speciation of uranium and neptunium in seawater at the same concentration is also discussed and compared to spectroscopic data. The uranium complex was identified as the neutral carbonato calcic complex UO2(CO3)3Ca2, which has been previously described in other natural systems. In the case of neptunium, the complex identified is mainly a carbonato complex whose exact stoichiometry is more difficult to assess. The knowledge of the actinide molecular speciation and reactivity in seawater is of fundamental interest in the particular case of uranium recovery and more generally regarding the actinide life cycle within the biosphere in the case of accidental release. This is the first report of actinide direct speciation in seawater medium that can complement inventory data.

show abstract

“…• quaternary amines-Aliquat-336 Ò (methyltricaprylammonium chloride) [5], commercial anion exchange resins [6][7][8][9][10][11] and TEVA TM -resin (Eichrom, USA) [8,9,[11][12][13]; • tertiary amines-Alamine-336 Ò (tricaprylamine) [14], trilaurylamine (TLA) [15], tri-n-octylamine (TnOA) [16], etc. ; • primary amines-Primene JM-T [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…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.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Popov

2016

J Radioanal Nucl Chem

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rapid determination of actinides in seawater samples

Cited by 40 publications

References 23 publications

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry of Actinides in Ground- and Seawater: An Innovative Method Allowing for the Simultaneous Analysis of U, Np, Pu, Am, and Cm Isotopes below ppq Levels

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry of Actinides in Ground- and Seawater: An Innovative Method Allowing for the Simultaneous Analysis of U, Np, Pu, Am, and Cm Isotopes below ppq Levels

XAS and TRLIF spectroscopy of uranium and neptunium in seawater

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

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About