Advances in Low Level Uranium and Plutonium Isotope Mass Spectrometry Using Multiple Ion Counting and Filament Carburization

After upgrading IRMM's mass spectrometric capabilities for certification measurements for uranium and plutonium using large sample sizes during the previous years, in 2006 - 2007 we focused on necessary improvements in the area of low-level isotopic analyses for uranium and plutonium. Improving low-level isotope mass spectrometry for uranium and plutonium at IRMM consisted of three steps. First a new thermal ionization mass spectrometer was acquired in order to have an instrument which can be upgraded with a "Multiple Ion Counting" (MIC) system. The second step of improvement was to implement the principle of "multi-dynamic" measurements for both uranium and plutonium measurements. This "multi-dynamic" measurement procedure provides an internal calibration of the MIC system and therefore circumvents the need for complicated inter-calibration routines. As a third step, a filament carburization procedure was implemented by which the ionization efficiencies for uranium and plutonium were improved by a factor of 3 and 10, respectively. Results for measurements performed on samples of previous NUSIMEP campaigns will be shown in comparison to results from various techniques employed by participating laboratories.

RICHTER Stephan;  ALONSO-MUNOZ Adolfo;  JAKOPIC Rozle;  KUEHN Heinz;  AREGBE Yetunde; 

2011-01-17

INMM

JRC45910

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC45910,