Reference materials for quality assurance of environmental plutonium analysis

Abstract

Reference materials (RMs) are very important for method development and validation. In order to quickly and reliably select the suitable RM for validating the determination of plutonium (Pu), we reviewed the RMs of Pu and prepared extensive Pu datasets in this study. After data treatment and a series of statistical analyses, we obtained the statistical values of 238−241Pu activity and Pu isotopic ratio for RMs. The statistical value of 239+240Pu activity is consistent with the certified value, indicating these measured values are highly reliable. We anticipate that, after further independent work at different laboratories, the statistical values of the Pu isotopic ratios are very important to validate analysis methods and calibrate the mass bias for environmental Pu analysis.