Abstract
Alpha spectrometry has been employed for the determination of the atom ratios of low enriched uranium samples. WinALPHA was used for the deconvolution and tail correction of the alpha spectra. The atom ratios calculated from alpha spectrometry were compared with that obtained by thermal ionisation mass spectrometry. The results are in good agreement and is encouraging. The tail correction methodology WinALPHA is shown to be applicable for deconvoluting when the alpha activity of high energy peak is more than 45 times the lower energy peaks for obtaining the correct alpha activity ratio which is very challenging and been done for the first time.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Dr. K. L. Ramakumar, Director, RC & I Group and Dr. S. Kannan, Head, Fuel Chemistry Division for their support to this work. The authors are extremely grateful and thankful to Dr. S. K. Aggarwal, Former Associate Director, Radiochemistry and Isotope Group and Head, Fuel Chemistry Division on whose effort these samples could be obtained for analysis. The authors are also thankful to the former employee of Fuel Chemistry Division, Mr. A. R. Parab for his immense help during the preparation of the samples for Thermal ionisation mass spectrometric analysis.
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Alamelu, D., Jagadish Kumar, S. Determination of isotopic composition of uranium samples using alpha spectrometry. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 310, 541–546 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-016-4874-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-016-4874-6