Mass Spectrometry of Long‐Lived Radionuclides

Abstract

AbstractInorganic mass spectrometric methods are powerful multielement analytical techniques for sensitive determination at the trace and ultratrace level, and for isotope ratio measurements in different materials (e.g. conducting, semiconducting and nonconducting solid samples; technical, environmental, biological, geological and water samples). An inorganic mass spectrometer consists of the following parts: the ion source for the evaporation, atomization and ionization of samples, the analyzer for the mass (and energy) separation of ion beams which are extracted from the ion source, and the ion detection system. The detection limits of solid‐state mass spectrometric techniques by thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS), glow discharge mass spectrometry (GDMS), laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA/ICPMS) for the direct analysis of solid samples were determined down to the sub‐nanogram per gram level. Resonance ionization mass spectrometry (RIMS) and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) are highly sensitive, selective ultrasensitive mass spectrometric techniques with detection limits up to 106atoms.Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) has been applied as the most important and sensitive mass spectrometric technique with its multielement capability for the determination of long‐lived radionuclides in solid andaqueous samples, with detection limits the sub‐picogram per liter. Isotope ratios can be determined by ICPMS using single ion collectors and multicollectors with a precision of 0.02% and 0.006% relative standard deviation (RSD) respectively. This review discusses the most important inorganic mass spectrometric techniques and their application for the quantitative determination of long‐lived radionuclides in metals, alloys, and nonconductors, as well as in environmental, biological and geological samples, and radioactive waste materials. The application of these methods to isotope ratio measurements is also discussed.