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Updated: Mar 23, 2026

Speciation and Bioavailability Measurements of Environmental Plutonium Using Diffusion in Thin Films
Published on: November 9, 2015
Plutonium age dating (production date measurement) by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
Zsolt Varga1, Adrian Nicholl1, Maria Wallenius1
1European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for Transuranium Elements, Postfach 2340, 76125 Karlsruhe, Germany.
Abstract:
This paper describes rapid methods for the determination of the production date (age dating) of plutonium (Pu) materials by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for nuclear forensic and safeguards purposes. One of the presented methods is a rapid, direct measurement without chemical separation using 235U/239Pu and 236U/240Pu chronometers. The other method comprises a straightforward extraction chromatographic separation, followed by ICP-MS measurement for the 234U/238Pu, 235U/239Pu, 236U/240Pu and 238U/242Pu chronometers. Age dating results of two plutonium certified reference materials (SRM 946 and 947, currently distributed as NBL CRM 136 and 137) are in good agreement with the archive purification dates.
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