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

有几种软β和α发射体对核废料的表征是一个挑战，例如63 Ni和钚和次要锕系元素。与快中子增殖反应堆场址有关的遗留土壤需要对钚的同位素比率进行评估，以确定废物的来源，并确定它是否与早先批准的释放有关。目前，在痕量水平上，这需要昂贵且耗时的加速器质谱法。该项目将扩大ICP-MS进行元素/放射性核素分析的能力，以避免将串联方法与共振电离方法CRIS相结合的预处理。最终提供了一种常规的低、甚低放废物表征方法。这将使用CRIS方法开发原子和分子的共振电离方案。这种方法有效地抑制干扰物种超过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去除“所有”干扰物质来彻底改变诸如ICP-MS等技术。CRIS方法已应用于放射性分子系统，使其也可以与串联ICP-MS技术相结合。最终能够开发出一种方法，可以在一次运行中测量所有的锕系元素，包括寿命较短的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.