3P-519 : Optimization of chemical separation of Pu, Am with UTEVA resin for plutonium age dating purpose by using MC-ICP-MS

The age of a Pu material can determine using several chronometers, such as 241Am/241Pu, 234U/238Pu, 235U/239Pu, 236U/240Pu or 238U/242Pu. 241Am/241Pu is one of the most commonly used isotope pair due to the relatively rapid ingrowth of 241Am and availability of high-precision. For determining highly accurate and precise 241Am/241Pu ratio, Am has to be separated and purified to remove interfering species from plutonium samples. For this purpose, we adopted relatively simple and effective chemical separation method based on UTEVA resin. When the sample solution of 5 M HNO3 is loaded on the UTEVA resin column, Pu adsorbs on the resin, and Am passes through the column. Based on this method, we optimized separation condition. In order to decide the optimal elution volume, the elution curve was produced from optimized separation schemes. In the future, the optimized method in this study will be applied with plutonium sample for plutonium age dating.