Abstract
Trace analysis of nuclear materials in solid particles collected in the environment or particles in liquid slurry generated in nuclear material manufacturing processes can pinpoint elemental, organic, and isotopic signatures of nuclear fuel cycle activities and processes. Such information can support nuclear safeguards programs by increasing our ability to detect undeclared nuclear materials, routine activities for safeguarding at declared facilities, and illicit activities. However, trace radioactive material analysis in liquids and slurries is challenging using bulk approaches. For example, one drawback of sensitive analysis such as inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is that sample is consumed or destroyed as a result of the technical approach. We developed a vacuum compatible microfluidic interface to enable surface analysis of liquids and solid–liquid interactions using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). In this work, we illustrate the initial results from the analysis of liquid uranium oxide standard solutions using in situ liquid SIMS. Because the liquid SIMS analysis is almost nondestructive, the same sample can then be analyzed by other analytical techniques or saved for future reference. Consequently, multimodal analysis is possible. Our results demonstrate that in situ liquid SIMS can be used as a new approach to analyze radioactive materials in liquid and slurry forms of relevance to diverse applications.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 454-459 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Surface and Interface Analysis |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 1 2020 |
Funding
Results and discussions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of IAEA or its Member States. Support for this work was from the Tactical Opportunity Pool (TOP) from the National Security Directorate (NSD) of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Additional programmatic support was from the DOE Nuclear Energy Spent Fuel Waste Science Technology (SFWST) program. We thank the support from Drs. Doug Burkes, James Elly, and Eirik Krogstad for their programmatic and technical advice. We thank May-Lin Thomas for providing ICP-MS samples. The research was performed partially in the W. R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), a national scientific user facility at PNNL. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is operated by Battelle under the contract DE-AC05-76RL01830. Results and discussions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of IAEA or its Member States. Support for this work was from the Tactical Opportunity Pool (TOP) from the National Security Directorate (NSD) of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Additional programmatic support was from the DOE Nuclear Energy Spent Fuel Waste Science Technology (SFWST) program. We thank the support from Drs. Doug Burkes, James Elly, and Eirik Krogstad for their programmatic and technical advice. We thank May‐Lin Thomas for providing ICP‐MS samples. The research was performed partially in the W. R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), a national scientific user facility at PNNL. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is operated by Battelle under the contract DE‐AC05‐76RL01830.
Keywords
- in situ liquid ToF-SIMS
- limit of detection
- nuclear material
- principal component analysis
- uranium