243Am certified reference material for nuclear safeguards and security

The Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC, Geel, Belgium) and the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA/DEN, Marcoule, France) jointly prepared and certified a 243Am spike reference material in compliance with ISO 17034. This reference material is needed for accurate mass spectrometry measurements of 241Am in nuclear forensics, security and safeguards applications but also for the characterisation of radioactive waste. Nearly 600 units of this material were produced, each containing about 3.5 mL of dilute nitric acid solution with an Am mass fraction of 1.5 µg·g-1. The reference material is certified for the 243Am amount content by Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry (IDMS) using an in-house 241Am spike, produced by beta-decay from highly enriched 241Pu (99.3 %) material. The americium isotope amount ratios were certified by Thermal Ionisation Mass spectrometry (TIMS). Independent verification measurements were performed by alpha-particle spectrometry, high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry for activity ratios, and alpha counting for the total massic activity of 241,243Am.

JAKOPIC Rozle;  FANKHAUSER Adelheid;  AREGBE Yetunde;  RICHTER Stephan;  CROZET M.;  MAILLARD Christophe;  RIVIER C.;  ROUDIL D.;  MAROULI Maria;  TZIKA Faidra;  ALTZITZOGLOU Timotheos;  POMME Stefaan; 

2017-12-20

ESARDA

JRC106491

978-92-79-73861-6,   

1831-9424,   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC106491,   

10.2760/631364,