Fission track-secondary ion mass spectrometry as a tool for detecting the isotopic signature of individual uranium containing particles

Esaka, Fumitaka  ; Lee, C. G.; Magara, Masaaki  ; Kimura, Takaumi 

A fission track technique was used as a sample preparation method for subsequent isotope abundance ratio analysis of individual uranium containing particles with secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) to measure the particles with higher enriched uranium efficiently. This method was then applied to the analysis of a real inspection swipe sample taken at a nuclear facility. As a consequence, the range of U/U isotope abundance ratio between 0.0276 and 0.0438 was obtained, which was higher than that measured by SIMS without using a fission track technique (0.0225 and 0.0341). This indicates that the fission track - SIMS method is a powerful tool to identify the particle with higher enriched uranium in environmental samples efficiently.