Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Measurement of 240 Pu/ 239 Pu Isotope Ratios in Novaya Zemlya and Kara Sea Sediments

Generally low levels of plutonium in environmental samples, often combined with limited sample sizes, necessitate reliable low-level techniques for determination of Pu isotopes. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) has proved to be a powerful method for measuring low-level Pu activity concentrations...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied Radiation and Isotopes
Main Authors: Oughton, D, Skipperud, Lindis, Fifield, L Keith, Cresswell, Richard, Salbu, Brit, Day, Philip
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Pergamon-Elsevier Ltd
Subjects:
Keywords: Environmental impact
Mass spectrometry
Plutonium
Sediments
Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)
Environmental samples
Isotope ratios
Radioisotopes
plutonium 239
plutonium 240
accelerator mass spectrometry
accuracy
conference paper
mass spectro Accelerator mass spectrometry
Novaya Zemlya
Kara Sea
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1885/77950
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2004.03.054
Description
Summary:Generally low levels of plutonium in environmental samples, often combined with limited sample sizes, necessitate reliable low-level techniques for determination of Pu isotopes. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) has proved to be a powerful method for measuring low-level Pu activity concentrations and Pu isotope ratios. Based on procedural blanks, detection limits for AMS were below 1fg Pu (equivalent to ca. 2μBq 139Pu), which can compete with both TIMS, high sensitivity ICP-MS, and certainly alpha-spectrometry, while showing less interference, memory and matrix effects as compared to routine ICP-MS techniques. In addition to low detection limits, the technique offers the advantage of giving information on Pu isotope ratios. Measurements of sediments collected from dumping sites at Novaya Zemlya showed deviation from global fallout 240Pu/239Pu ratios.

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