AMS measurements of actinides and technetium at LLNL

The Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (CAMS) and the Health and Ecological Assessment Division (HEA) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are developing methods for the measurement of technetium and plutonium as part of a long-term effort to expand our accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) capabilities to isotopes throughout the periodic table. AMS provides ultratrace sensitivity for these nuclides with high rejection of interferences and low susceptibility to matrix components. These advantages will lead to reduced demands on the sample preparation chemistry, high throughput, and rapid turn around of results. Ultimately these will result in larger, more reliable, and more complete data sets. We have begun measurements of 99 Tc and Pu isotopes in environmental samples, including IAEA reference materials. The following sections contain a summary of our sample preparation and AMS measurement protocols, and the results of some recent measurements. It should be noted that the results presented here are mostly of a preliminary nature, and are meant only to demonstrate the current status of the methods.