CHARACTERIZATION OF AEROSOLS CONTAINING FISSIONABLE ELEMENTS USING SOLID-STATE TRACK RECORDERS*

An aerosol of U3O8 highly enriched in 235U was generated with a nebulizer from a suspension of U3O8 powder in distilled water. The aerosol was collected on a membrane filter. Polycarbonate plastic, placed in good contact with the filter, was used to record fission tracks when the package was exposed to known fluences of slow neutrons. Fission-track stars associated with individual particles of U3O8 were observed in the plastic. The fission-track distributions were converted to a particle-size distribution for the aerosol. For a log normal distribution the geometric mean and standard deviation can be determined with better than 5% accuracy. This method can be applied to plutonium and other transuranic aerosols.