High sensitivity analysis of plutonium isotopes in environmental samples using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)

Abstract

This article presents a methodology for the determination of the concentration and isotopic ratio of plutonium occurring at femtogram levels in environmental matrices such as soils and sediments by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Results on analyses of a number of reference materials ( IAEA-375, IAEA-135, IAEA-300, IAEA-327, NIST 4350, NIST 4353b) are presented as validation of the method in reproducibly measuring the plutonium isotopic ratio Pu-240 : Pu-239 in a variety of environmental sample matrices. © 2008, Royal Society of Chemistry