A comparative evaluation of 238Pu determination in NIST-SRM-947-Pu by alpha spectrometry and thermal ionization mass spectrometry

Abstract

Summary A comparative evaluation of 238Pu determination in NIST-SRM-947-Pu isotopic reference material by alpha spectrometry and thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) is presented. Electrodeposited sources with geometric progression (G.P.) method to account for tail contribution were used in alpha spectrometry. In TIMS, the recently developed approach of using 235U as a monitor isotope in interfering element correction methodology was employed to account for the isobaric interference of 238U at 238Pu. The atom % abundance of 238Pu determined by both the methods is in good agreement with each other but is higher than that quoted by NIST in the reference material SRM-947-Pu.