Determination of americium in plutonium based nuclear fuel materials An assessment of different methodologies

Determination of americium (Am) is one of the requirements of chemical quality assurance of plutonium (Pu) bearing fuel materials Though many methods are published for determining Am at picogram to femtogram levels in environmental and biological matrices yet a few of them are used routinely for Pu based nuclear fuel samples This paper gives a brief summary of the different analytical methods available and presents results of our experiments on the determination of Am in Pu bearing fuels using gamma spectroscopy The methods utilizing gamma emissions from Am-241 and Pu isotopes are fast as they do not Involve chemical separation of Pu and Am do not require an accurate knowledge of the efficiency values of the detector systems and are not dependent on the availability of a radiometric standard for Am-241 In addition for aged Pu samples containing large amounts of Am-241 there is no need for dilution and this reduces the volume of analytical radioactive waste solution Future requirements of reference materials to validate different methodologies for determining Am isotopes are also highlighted (C) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved