Activation Product Analysis in the Presence of Fission Products

Thesis (Ph.D.), Department of Chemistry, Washington State UniversityMethods to quantify activation products in complex samples are needed in areas such as nuclear safeguards, waste treatment and identification, environmental monitoring, and consequence management. Formation of activation products is often concurrent with the formation of large quantities of fission products that intermix with the activation products. As many fission products have high rates of gamma emissions, the presence of fission products obfuscate the gamma spectrum and increase the minimum detectable activity (MDA) limit for activation products. To achieve the lowest detection limits possible for activation product analysis of Fe-55, Ta-182, W-187, Pt-197, and Au-198, radiochemical separation procedures were developed and evaluated on multiple sample types including samples containing fission products.Department of Chemistry, Washington State Universit