title: Determination of plutonium isotopes (238Pu, 239Pu, 240Pu, 241Pu) in environmental samples using radiochemical separation combined with radiometric and mass spectrometric measurements.
abstract: This paper reports an analytical method for the determination of plutonium isotopes ((238)Pu, (239)Pu, (240)Pu, (241)Pu) in environmental samples using anion exchange chromatography in combination with extraction chromatography for chemical separation of Pu. Both radiometric methods (liquid scintillation counting and alpha spectrometry) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) were applied for the measurement of plutonium isotopes. The decontamination factors for uranium were significantly improved up to 7.5 × 10(5) for 20 g soil compared to the level reported in the literature, this is critical for the measurement of plutonium isotopes using mass spectrometric technique. Although the chemical yield of Pu in the entire procedure is about 55%, the analytical results of IAEA soil 6 and IAEA-367 in this work are in a good agreement with the values reported in the literature or reference values, revealing that the developed method for plutonium determination in environmental samples is reliable. The measurement results of (239+240)Pu by alpha spectrometry agreed very well with the sum of (239)Pu and (240)Pu measured by ICP-MS. ICP-MS can not only measure (239)Pu and (240)Pu separately but also (241)Pu. However, it is impossible to measure (238)Pu using ICP-MS in environmental samples even a decontamination factor as high as 10(6) for uranium was obtained by chemical separation.
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Coastal and Island Development of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China; Center for Nuclear Technologies, Technical University of Denmark, Risø Campus, Roskilde 4000, Denmark.
authors.forename: Yihong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Center for Nuclear Technologies, Technical University of Denmark, Risø Campus, Roskilde 4000, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jixin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.affiliation: Center for Nuclear Technologies, Technical University of Denmark, Risø Campus, Roskilde 4000, Denmark; Xi'an AMS Center, SKLLQG, Institute of Earth Environment, CAS, Xi'an 710075, China. Electronic address: xiho@dtu.dk.
authors.forename: Xiaolin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Coastal and Island Development of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China. Electronic address: span@nju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shaoming
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Center for Nuclear Technologies, Technical University of Denmark, Risø Campus, Roskilde 4000, Denmark.
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roos
mesh_terms: D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D011005:Plutonium / Q000032:analysis*; D011848:Radioactive Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D011874:Radiometry / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D011848:Radioactive Pollutants; D011005:Plutonium
keywords: Anion exchange chromatography; Environmental samples; Extraction chromatography; ICP-MS; Pu isotopes; Radiometric techniques