Development and application of sequential separation technique for ultra-trace multi-elements including Pu

Miyamoto, Yutaka   ; Yasuda, Kenichiro   ; Magara, Masaaki  

In order to analyse the environmental records of key elements including radioactive isotopes which originates from nuclear bomb tests and accidental releases from nuclear power plants, the authors accomplished the development of technique for automatic and sequential separation of less than nano grams of ultra-trace U, Th, Pb, the lanthanides, and Pu using a single anion-exchange column and mixed media consisting of highly pure acids. The separation performance of ion-exchange column was evaluated using the spikes and a reference solution, and the automatic separation system was served for the elemental and isotopic analyses of ultra-trace elements in the tree ring samples.