Analysis of plutonium and uranium by the resin bead-mass spectrometric method

Abstract

The development of the resin bead method and the techniques employed in its application to isotopic analysis of Pu and U in highly radioactive solutions of spent reactor fuel will be described. The method, developed primarily for safeguards analyses, may also be applied to isotopic measurement for assessing nuclear fuel cycle technology. Satisfactory analyses of both elements can be obtained from a single resin bead when the initial dissolver solution has a U/Pu ratio in the range of 50 to 300. Optimum bead loadings are 1 to 3 ng Pu and U; these loadings are obtained if the concentration of the solution is adjusted to about 1 ..mu..g U per bead before the beads are introduced. Isotopic composition measurements of NBS standards using this technique indicate a precision of +- 0.5% for minor isotopes in the 1% concentration range and +- 0.1% for major isotopes in the 50% range. Analyses of a synthetic dissolver solution give an accuracy for the isotope dilution measurement of Pu and U of less than or equal to 0.5% with an internal precision of 0.9% and 0.6% for Pu and U, respectively.