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U.S. Department of Energy
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Double tracer studies to optimize conditions for the radiochemical separation of plutonium from large volume sea water samples

Conference ·
OSTI ID:4409014

From meeting on reference methods for marine radioactivity studies: determination of transuranic elements, radioruthenium, and other radionuclides in marine environmental samples''; Vienna, Austria (30 Oct 1972). A procedure for optimizing conditions for the radiochemical separation of plutonium from seawater is described in which /sup 242/Pu is added to determine the overall recovery of Pu separated from the sample and the recovery of /sup 242/Pu at any chosen point in the procedure is measured by the addition of a similar amount of /sup 236/Pu at that point and the percentage of /sup 236/Pu finally recovered is used to calculate the /sup 242/Pu recovery at the time of /sup 236/Pu additio n. The experience gleaned from this double tracer experiment has permitted improvement in the ability to recover plutonium from 50 l seawater samples for alpha spectrometric analysis of /sup 239/240/Pu and, in some cases, /sup 238/Pu. (DHM)

Research Organization:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Mass. (USA)
NSA Number:
NSA-29-002450
OSTI ID:
4409014
Report Number(s):
COO--3563-12; CONF-7210109--1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English