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Inline gamma-spectrometry of fission product elements after rapid high-pressure ion chromatographic separation

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Abstract

Analysis of irradiated material shortly after irradiation can be non-trivial due to highly radioactive activation and fission isotopes increasing dead time in gamma-ray detection systems, often requiring a “cooling-period” between receipt of a sample and the subsequent analysis. A direct separation–detection method has been developed combining ion chromatography and inductively coupled mass spectrometry for rapid, low-level analysis of fission products; it cannot, however, detect certain short-lived species below the detection limit of the system. Here we report the implementation of an inline gamma-ray detector, which was added post-separation, pre-analysis, to test the quality and utility of elementally-isolated gamma-ray spectroscopy.

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Acknowledgements

This submission has been authored by a contractor of the U.S. Government under Contract No. DE AC05-00OR22725. Accordingly, the U.S. Government retains a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce the published form of this contribution, or allow others to do so, for the U.S. Government purposes. This research was supported in part by an appointment to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Post-Master’s Research Associate Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1 Bethel Valley Road, Oak Ridge, TN, 37830, USA

    Emilie K. Fenske, Benjamin D. Roach, Cole R. Hexel, David C. Glasgow, John D. Partridge & Joseph M. Giaquinto

  2. Institute for Nuclear Security, University of Tennessee, 1640 Cumberland Avenue, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    Emilie K. Fenske & Ian R. Stewart

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  1. Emilie K. Fenske
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  2. Benjamin D. Roach
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  3. Cole R. Hexel
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  4. David C. Glasgow
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  5. Ian R. Stewart
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  6. John D. Partridge
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  7. Joseph M. Giaquinto
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Correspondence to Benjamin D. Roach.

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Fenske, E.K., Roach, B.D., Hexel, C.R. et al. Inline gamma-spectrometry of fission product elements after rapid high-pressure ion chromatographic separation. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 324, 759–771 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-020-07103-x

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