We face challenges in predicting accurately and precisely the fission spectra produced by research reactors.  To this end, we are analyzing spent nuclear fuels and comparing the lanthanoid isotopic spectrum to Origen and comparable predictive models.  The fissionogenic isotopic spectra of Nd through Gd reveal the reactor's operational history and can be precisely measured using multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS), given high efficiency chromatographic separation methods.  This work details a two-step cation exchange separation method of a surrogate nuclear fuel for the precise isotopic analysis of Nd, Sm, and Gd using MC-ICP-MS.  Results emphasize the significance of early separation of high activity contaminants from the lanthanoids.  Refined cuts of individual lanthanoids show contamination from adjacent elements below 1 part in 10,000 with picogram blank levels.  Presently, three nuclear fuel samples at SRNL have undergone the first stage separation and are being prepared for the lanthanoid separation.

Quantitative separation of lanthanoids in nuclear fuel using a two stage separation technique

245th National Meeting (2013)

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