Plutonium separation by solvent extraction for the determination by photon electron rejecting alpha liquid spectrometry

Abstract

SummaryThe separation of plutonium from marine sediments (IAEA-135 reference material) by solvent extraction and determination with Photon Electron Rejecting Liquid Alpha Spectrometry (PERALS®) has been performed. Two extraction schemes, TOANO3and HDEHP, were compared for the separation of plutonium, uranium, thorium and americium from the matrix components. The TOANO3separation method showed plutonium recovery of 85% with an accuracy of ±20%, while for the HDEHP separation the plutonium recovery was only 9.3%. Minimum detectable activities of plutonium for a counting time of 120000 seconds for 0.25 g sample material were 0.18 Bq/kg for TOANO3and 1.62 Bq/kg for HDEHP separation methods, respectively.