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A highly-enriched 244Pu reference material for nuclear safeguards and nuclear forensics measurements

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Abstract

A highly-enriched 244Pu isotope dilution reference material has been prepared and characterized for metrologically traceable measurements of very small quantities of plutonium. The amount of plutonium in samples associated with nuclear safeguards and nuclear forensic measurements can be significantly less than 1 ng. Accordingly, the ability to quantify the amount and isotopic composition of plutonium from a single mass-spectrometric analysis is particularly desirable. The highly-enriched 244Pu reference material, described here, will minimize the magnitude of spike corrections necessary to obtain accurate information on plutonium isotopic composition from isotope dilution measurements.

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Notes

  1. Certain commercial equipment, instruments, software, or materials are identified in this paper to foster understanding. Such identification does not imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor does it imply that the materials or equipment identified are necessarily the best available for the purpose.

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Acknowledgements

Reference material preparation and production at LLNL and characterization measurements and LLNL and LANL were funded by the United State National Nuclear Security Administration. Project activities at NIST were supported by the United States Department of Homeland Security. The analyses performed at CEA were supported internally.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8462, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899, USA

    Richard M. Essex

  2. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, L-231, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, CA, 94551-0808, USA

    Ross W. Williams & Kerri C. Treinen

  3. CEA/DAM-Ile de France, 91297, Bruyères-le-Châtel, Arpajon Cedex, France

    Amélie Hubert

  4. Department of Safeguards, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna International Centre, P.O. Box 100, 1400, Vienna, Austria

    Marc A. Humphrey & Maxim V. Peńkin

  5. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA

    Jeremy D. Inglis, William S. Kinman, Joel Maassen & Robert E. Steiner

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  1. Richard M. Essex
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  2. Ross W. Williams
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  3. Kerri C. Treinen
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  4. Amélie Hubert
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  5. Marc A. Humphrey
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  6. Jeremy D. Inglis
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  7. William S. Kinman
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  8. Joel Maassen
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  9. Maxim V. Peńkin
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  10. Robert E. Steiner
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Correspondence to Richard M. Essex.

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Conflict of interest

Richard M. Essex, Ross W. Williams, Kerri C. Treinen, Amélie Hubert, Marc A. Humphrey, Jeremy D. Inglis, William S. Kinman, Joel Maassen, Maxim V. Peńkin, and Robert E. Steiner declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Essex, R.M., Williams, R.W., Treinen, K.C. et al. A highly-enriched 244Pu reference material for nuclear safeguards and nuclear forensics measurements. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 324, 257–270 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-020-07075-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-020-07075-y

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