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Dissolution of aerosol particles collected from nuclear facility plutonium production process

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Abstract

A simple, robust analytical chemistry method has been developed to dissolve plutonium containing particles in a complex matrix. The aerosol particles collected on Marple cascade impactor substrates were shown to be dissolved completely with an acid mixture of 12 M HNO3 and 0.1 M HF. A pressurized closed vessel acid digestion technique was utilized to heat the samples at 130 °C for 16 h to facilitate the digestion. The dissolution efficiency for plutonium particles was 99 %. The resulting particle digestate solution was suitable for trace elemental analysis and isotope composition determination, as well as radiochemistry measurements.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Department of Energy and National Nuclear Safety Agency for research funding. The authors also thank Donivan Porterfield, Steve Myers, Diana Decker, and Jun Gao at LANL for conducting the NDA experiments, processing the samples, and assisting in preparation of the manuscript. This paper is LA-UR-15-24368.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, MS G740, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA

    Ning Xu, Alex Martinez, Michael Schappert, Dennis P. Montoya, Patrick Martinez & Lav Tandon

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  1. Ning Xu
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  2. Alex Martinez
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  3. Michael Schappert
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  4. Dennis P. Montoya
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  5. Patrick Martinez
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  6. Lav Tandon
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Correspondence to Ning Xu.

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Xu, N., Martinez, A., Schappert, M. et al. Dissolution of aerosol particles collected from nuclear facility plutonium production process. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 307, 2047–2053 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-4365-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-4365-1

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