ANALYTICAL LABORATORY AT IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY COUNTING EQUIPMENT STANDARDIZATION AND QUALITY CONTROL IMPROVEMENT

Conference · Thu May 24 00:00:00 EDT 2018

OSTI ID:1484696

Larson, N. R. ^[1]; Storms, B. ^[1]

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1. Idaho National Laboratory

The Analytical Laboratory at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is a growing program with an emphasis on providing high quality results to customers, and an increasing focus on independent research. The Analytical Laboratory Counting Group has a number of capabilities: six gamma-ray counters, one gamma-ray sample changer, four gas flow proportional counter drawers, an auto-changing gas flow proportional counter, two liquid scintillation counters, and an alpha spectroscopy system. Other capabilities within the Analytical Laboratory include quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), high resolution ICP-MS, multi-collector ICP-MS, ICP atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), gas mass spectrometry, thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS), several glove boxes and fume hoods for sample preparation, and six interconnected hot cells for sample receipt and dissolution. In order to position the Analytical Laboratory as a world-class research institution, the Counting Group has recently begun making improvements to its analytical techniques, calibrations, standardization, and quality control procedures. A large part of this effort is to increase the level of documentation of instrument work. One project is to re-calibrate all of the gamma systems with newly purchased standards. One of the changes made in the purchase of the new standards was to lower the total activity so that the dead time of the calibration would more closely match the dead time of typical samples. Similarly, another planned project is to use new standards to re-calibration the gas flow proportional counters. Additional work has focused on testing and improving alpha spectroscopy sample preparation techniques. Plutonium separations have been tested to improve tracer recovery and to verify the separation technique in the presence of typical sample matrices. A final planned area of improvements has focused on liquid scintillation counting. One difficulty the Counting Group has encountered in liquid scintillation counting is an inflated gross alpha count relative to other analysis methods in the presence of high gross beta activity. Ideas include investigating the impact of choice of scintillation cocktail, as well as the effects of sample dilution.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: U410
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1484696
• Report Number(s): INL-CON--18-50268-Rev000
• Conference Information: Radiobioassay and Radiochemical Measurement Conference, Portland, Maine, 05/20/2018 - 05/25/2018
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
Quality Control
Standardization