Development of analytical separation methods for actinide materials

AEI 8

Dominic Peterson, dominicp@lanl.gov, Chemistry Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mailstop K484, Los Alamos, NM 87545
The separation of trace level actinides has been evaluated on ion chromatography columns. Detection of the actinides was achieved through the use of an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS). Columns were prepared utilizing a variety of packing materials. The separation of the actinides was optimized for several parameters including resin size, column length, packing pressure, and eluent flow rate. We were able to separate a mixture of five actinides (Th232, U238, Np237, Pu239, Am243) in under four minutes. This work has application to rapid bioassay as well as for automated separations of actinide materials. We have also examined placing extractant materials in polymer matricies in order to enable rapid sample preparation for alpha spectrometry. (LAUR-07-2101)