Enhancing capability of ICP-MS to enable rapid detection of radioisotopes

有几个软的贝塔和阿尔法发射体对核废料的特性构成了挑战，例如63Ni以及钚和次鳗系元素。与快速增殖场相关的遗留土壤需要评估钚的同位素比率，以确定废物的来源，并确定它是否与较早授权的释放有关。目前，在痕量水平上，这需要昂贵和耗时的加速器质谱学方法。该项目将扩大电感耦合等离子体质谱仪进行元素/放射性核素分析的能力，以避免将串联方法和共振电离方法结合在一起进行前处理。最终为LLW/VLLW表征提供了一种常规方法。这将开发使用CRIS方法的原子和分子的共振电离方案。这种方法有效地抑制了干扰物种超过7个数量级，允许研究几个原子/秒的速率。这有可能通过有效地消除“所有”干扰物种来彻底改变诸如电感耦合等离子体质谱(ICP-MS)等技术。CRIS方法已被应用于放射性分子体系，使其也可以与串联电感耦合等离子体质谱技术相结合。最终实现了一种方法的开发，可以在一次运行中测量所有元素，包括使用寿命较短的Pu-241，从而能够进行总Pu分析。

There are several soft beta and alpha emitters that are a challenge for nuclear waste characterisation such as 63Ni and the plutonium and minor actinide elements. Legacy soils associated with fast breeder sites require assessment of the isotopic ratio of plutonium to determine the origin of waste and determine if it is associated with earlier authorised release. Currently at trace levels this requires accelerator mass spectrometry methods that are expensive and time consuming. This project will expand the capability of ICP-MS for elemental/radionuclide analysis to avoid pre-treatment combining tandem methods with the resonance ionization method CRIS. Ultimately providing a routine method for LLW/VLLW characterization. This will develop resonance ionization schemes for atoms and molecules using the CRIS method. This method efficiently suppresses interference species by more than 7 orders of magnitude allowing rates of a few atoms/second to be studied. This has the potential to revolutionize techniques such as ICP-MS by efficiently removing 'all' interference species. The CRIS method has been applied to radioactive molecular systems allowing it to also be combined with tandem ICP-MS techniques. Ultimately enabling the development of a method where all actinides can be measured in a single run, including shorter-lived Pu-241 enabling total Pu analysis.