title: Ion chromatography inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (IC-ICP-MS) and radiometric techniques for the determination of actinides in aqueous leachate solutions from uranium oxide.
abstract: The choice of the analytical method for the determination of actinide isotopes in leachate solutions has to be made considering several parameters: detection limit for each isotope, sample preparation procedure in terms of duration and complexity, counting time and interferences. A leachate solution obtained by keeping a pellet of UO2 doped with 238Pu in contact with distilled water was investigated for the content of U and Pu isotopes by radiometric methods (alpha-, gamma-spectrometry and liquid scintillation counting). The results of the radiometric methods were compared with those obtained from the analysis performed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry on-line to a system for chromatographic separation (IC-ICP-MS). The comparison confirmed that IC-ICP-MS is a powerful method for the detection of long-lived radionuclides. The radiometric methods have a detection limit two orders of magnitude lower than IC-ICP-MS in the case of short-lived radioisotopes mostly due to the low background in the detector. On the other hand, the sample preparation and the analysis duration are more time-consuming compared to IC-ICP-MS; moreover, not all isotopes can be determined by using only one radiometric technique.
authors.affiliation: European Commission, Joint Research Center, Institute for Transuranium Elements, Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Solatie
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carbol
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Betti
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bocci
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hiernaut
authors.forename: V V
authors.initials: VV
authors.lastname: Rondinella
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cobos