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The most time consuming process in uranium or plutonium isotopic analyses is performing the requisite chromatographic separation of the actinides. Filament preparation for thermal ionization (TIMS) adds further delays, but is generally accepted due to the unmatched performance in trace isotopic analyses. Advances in Multi-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) are beginning to rival the performance of TIMS. Methods, such as Electrochemically Modulated Separations (EMS) can efficiently pre-concentrate U or Pu quite selectively from small solution volumes in a matrix of 0.5 M nitric acid. When performed in-line with ICP-MS, the rapid analyte release from the electrode is fast, and large transient analyte signal enhancements of >100 fold can be achieved as compared to more conventional continuous nebulization of the original starting solution. This makes the approach ideal for very low level isotope ratio measurements. In this paper, some aspects of EMS performance are described. These include low level Pu isotope ratio behavior versus concentration by MC-ICP-MS and uranium rejection characteristics that are also important for reliable low level Pu isotope ratio determinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both nuclear forensics and environmental sampling depend upon laboratory analysis of nuclear material that has often been exposed to the environment after it has been produced. It is therefore important to understand how those environmental conditions might have changed the chemical composition of the material over time, particularly for chemically sensitive compounds. In the specific case of uranium enrichment facilities, uranium-bearing particles stem from small releases of uranium hexafluoride, a highly reactive gas that hydrolyzes upon contact with moisture from the air to form uranium oxyfluoride (UO2F2) particles. The uranium isotopic composition of those particles is used by the International Atomic Energy Agency to verify whether a facility is compliant with its declarations. The present study, however, aims to demonstrate how knowledge of time-dependent changes in chemical composition, particle morphology and molecular structure can contribute to an even more reliable interpretation of the analytical results. We prepared a set of uranium oxyfluoride particles at the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements and followed changes in their composition, morphology and structure with time to see if we could use these properties to place boundaries on the particle exposure time in the environment. Because the rate of change is affected by exposure to UV-light, humidity levels and elevated temperatures, the samples were subjected to varying conditions of those three parameters. The NanoSIMS at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was found to be the optimal tool to measure the relative amount of fluorine in individual uranium oxyfluoride particles. At the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, cryogenic laser-induced time-resolved U(VI) fluorescence microspectroscopy (CLIFS) was used to monitor changes in the molecular structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]