The Determination of Impurities in Plutonium Metal by Anion Exchange and ICP/AES

Abstract
The determination of trace-metal impurities in plutonium metal was investigated with the use of anion exchange separation and analysis by inductively coupled plasma/atomic emission spectrometry. Data on recoveries and independent measurements for some 30 elements show precisions and accuracies in the 1–10% range, values that are a significant improvement over those of traditional carrier distillation techniques. Americium can be determined on the same sample aliquot, with figures of merit rivaling those of nuclear counting procedures.