title: Isotope correlations for determining the isotopic composition of plutonium in high burnup pressurized water reactor (PWR) samples.
abstract: Correlations among the alpha activity ratios of (238)Pu/((239)Pu+(240)Pu), the alpha specific activities of Pu and the atom % abundances of Pu isotopes were derived for the plutonium samples obtained from high burnup fuel samples from pressurized water reactors. Using the alpha activity ratios of (238)Pu/((239)Pu+(240)Pu) determined by alpha spectrometry, the alpha specific activities of Pu as well as the atom % abundances of the plutonium isotopes in the unknown samples were calculated without depending on mass spectrometry. The calculated alpha specific activities of Pu agreed with those determined by experiment within 2%, and the atom % abundances of the Pu isotopes agreed within 4% for (238)Pu, 5% for (239)Pu, 7% for (240)Pu and 5% for (242)Pu, respectively. In addition, an attempt was made to elucidate a correlation between the fuel burnup and the alpha activity ratio of (238)Pu/((239)Pu+(240)Pu) at a range of the burnup from 35.5 to 62.9 GWd/MtU.
authors.affiliation: Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Yusung, Daejeon, Republic of Korea. ksjoe@kaeri.re.kr
authors.forename: Kihsoo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Joe
authors.forename: Young-Shin
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.forename: Byung-Chul
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Sun-Ho
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Euo-Chang
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Kyuseok
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Song