Determination of plutonium isotope ratios in individual uranium-plutonium mixed particles with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Esaka, Fumitaka; Suzuki, Daisuke; Miyamoto, Yutaka; Magara, Masaaki

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 306(2), p.393 - 399, 2015/11

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-4113-6

An analytical technique was developed by a combination of single particle dissolution, chemical separation of uranium, plutonium and americium with extraction chromatography using UTEVA resins and measurement with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). This method was applied to plutonium isotope ratio analysis of individual U-Pu particles with U/Pu ratios ranging from 1 to 70. Consequently, Pu/Pu, Pu/Pu and Pu/Pu isotope ratios were successfully determined, while it was impossible to determine Pu/Pu ratios due to the high process blank values on m/z 238.