Speaker
Description
So-called ‘hot particles’ are micrometre-scale fragments deriving from nuclear fuel. In the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, these particles have contaminated the environment since the accident. They are composed of partially spent fuel fragments of mostly low-enriched U, and (ultra)-trace levels of other actinides and fission products.
Nuclear materials that contaminate the environment present an ongoing challenge to characterize due to their small size and diverse morphology. The SIRIUS RIMS instrument in Hannover, Germany, analyses isolated hot particles through resonance ionization mass spectrometry (RIMS). It is an adaptation of a commercial time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) instrument (IONTOF.V), and five Ti:Sa lasers. With two frequency-doubled, fast-switching Ti:Sa lasers, it is capable of rapid element-selective analysis of U, Np, Pu, Am, Sr, Zr. Isotope ratio analysis of these elements in hot particles reveal the particle’s origin, environmental sensitivity, and an estimation of the time spent in the environment.
Spatially resolved analysis can distinguish between fissionogenic and natural nuclides, which will be shown on a particle containing both natural Zr-cladding, and Zr fission products. In a second particle that has been bisectioned, environmentally-derived and fissionogenic Sr isotopes are homogenous over the cross-section, showing the particle’s interaction with the environment is not limited to the particle’s surface.
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