Determination of isotopic composition of uranium in the CMX-4 samples by SIMS

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - From the 16 laboratories participating in CMX-4, three laboratories (Buonarroti, Matisse, and Pollock) have utilized secondary ion mass...     

Estimation of the oxidation state of uranium in microparticles by using scanning electron microscope in the backscattered electrons mode

This paper considers the results of applying of scanning electron microscopes in the backscattered electron mode for the specifying of the contents of multielemental samples and minerals, which are presented in publications. This approach is used for estimation of oxidation state of uranium in microparticles. The possibility of this goal achieving is demonstrated on the example of the analysis of the UO₂ and U₃O₈ microparticles and the samples of In, Sn, Pt and Pb.     

X-ray microanalysis of uranium dioxide particles by using low electron beam energy

The elemental analysis results of the various size uranium dioxide fragments, performed with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped by X-ray energy dispersive analyzer (INCA x-act, “Oxford Instruments”, Great Britain), are presented. The elemental composition calculation was carried out applying the pre-installed program based on the XPP matrix correction algorithm. It is shown that for the bulky UO₂ samples, measured with the varied accelerating voltage in range of 6–20 kV, the uranium concentrations slightly differ (relative uncertainties doesn’t exceed ±2%). The composition of uranium dioxide particles sized up to 0.5 μm can be defined using beam energy of 6 keV with typical for bulky sample accuracy.     

Contribution of bulk mass spectrometry isotopic analysis to characterization of materials in the framework of CMX-4

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - Seven laboratories used the results of bulk uranium isotopic analysis by either inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) or thermal...