Rapid dissolution methods are needed for timely analysis of nuclear debris for attribution analysis. Traditionally digestion of nuclear debris is performed by heating the sample in combinations of highly concentrated mineral acids and requires &gt;24 hours to complete. We have evaluated two methods for sample dissolution using ammonium bifluoride (ABF) as an alternative to concentrated mineral acid digestion. One method is the fusion of samples with ammonium biflouride, demonstrated to dissolve surrogate nuclear debris in less than 3 hours in open PFA or PTFE vessels when heated to 230 <sup>o</sup>C. The other method we have investigated uses microwaves for direct heating of the ABF and reaction products. The heating facilitates evaporation of a viscous diffusion layer that forms around sample particles, allowing for an increase in the rate of reaction and thereby decreasing the total time of dissolution to approximately 1.5 hours. Previous fusion methods have used hot plates and/or ovens to accelerate dissolution and evaporation but a microwave only method has not yet been explored. In this work, a rapid open vessel microwave dissolution procedure was developed and evaluated using geological reference materials so that elemental recovery could be compared to recoveries obtained from ABF fusions.

Comparison of microwave dissolution to open vessel fusion methods using ammonium bifluoride for dissolution of post nuclear detonation debris

256th National Meeting (2018)

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