Determination of plutonium, americium and curium isotopes in radioactive metal wastes deriving from nuclear decommissioning

A radiochemical analytical method, coupling different measurements techniques (alpha spectrometry, liquid scintillation counting and mass-spectrometry) for quantifying the content of the most significant plutonium and americium/curium isotopes in metal waste samples, is presented. The method based on the sequential determination of all the analytes of interest has the great advantage to perform the sample pre-treatment only once, resulting fast and cheap while maintaining sufficient selectivity and sensitivity. The mean values of radiochemical yields and the minimum detectable activities have been evaluated. Significant activity ratios between transuranic isotopes have been revealed and used to investigate the origin of the waste samples.