Freiburg 2024 – scientific programme
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MS: Fachverband Massenspektrometrie
MS 2: New Methods, Applications, Storage Rings
MS 2.4: Talk
Monday, March 11, 2024, 18:00–18:15, HS 3042
Noble Gas mass spectrometry of nuclear fuel particles from Chernobyl — •Laura Leifermann1, Greg Balco2, Autumn Roberts2, Paul Hanemann1, Tobias Weissenborn1, Manuel Raiwa2, Darcy van Eerten1, Michael Savina2, Brett Isselhardt2, and Clemens Walther1 — 1IRS, Hannover, Deutschland — 2LLNL, Livermore, USA
Noble gas mass spectrometry is generally used for determination of the elemental and isotopic composition of He, Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe in terrestrial and extraterrestrial samples. Here rock samples are heated to temperatures above 1500°C to extract the noble gases. In this work we analyzed the fission gases of individual micrometer-sized spent nuclear fuel particles from the Chernobyl exclusion zone. The particles were heated up to 1200°C and the released Xe and Kr was measured by noble gas mass spectrometry. The obtained isotope ratios give insight into important nuclear forensic information like neutron flux and sample age. In addition to noble gas mass spectrometry the particles were analyzed by resonant ion mass spectrometry for the particle's actinide isotopic composition. Furthermore, gamma spectrometry and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) measurements were carried out to maximize the knowledge on these 30-year-old nuclear fuel particles form the environment.
Part of this work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. Release number: LLNL-ABS-857826
Keywords: Noble gas; Spent nuclear fuel particles; Chernobyl; RIMS