A new thorium-229 reference material

Richard M Essex; Jaqueline L Mann; Ross W Williams; William S Kinman; Amélie Hubert; Megan E Bennett; Alkiviadis Gourgiotis

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2017.07.050

A new thorium-229 reference material

Appl Radiat Isot. 2018 Apr:134:23-31. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2017.07.050. Epub 2017 Jul 27.

Authors

Richard M Essex¹, Jaqueline L Mann², Ross W Williams³, William S Kinman⁴, Amélie Hubert⁵, Megan E Bennett⁶, Alkiviadis Gourgiotis⁷

Affiliations

¹ National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8462, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA. Electronic address: Richard.essex@NIST.gov.
² National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 8462, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA.
³ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, L-231, Livermore, CA 94551-0808, USA.
⁴ Los Alamos National Laboratory, Actinide Analytical Chemistry Division, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
⁵ CEA/DAM-Ile de France, Bruyères-le-Châtel, 91297 Arpajon Cedex, France.
⁶ Argonne National Laboratory, Analytical Chemistry Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue, Lemont, IL 60439, USA.
⁷ Univ Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cite, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, UMR CNRS 7154, F-75238 Paris, France.

Abstract

A new reference material was characterized for ²²⁹Th molality and thorium isotope amount ratios. This reference material is intended for use in nuclear forensic analyses as an isotope dilution mass spectrometry spike. The reference material value and expanded uncertainty (k = 2) for the ²²⁹Th molality is (1.1498 ± 0.0016) × 10^-10molg^-1 solution. The value and expanded uncertainty (k = 2) for the n(²³⁰Th)/n(²²⁹Th) ratio is (5.18 ± 0.26) × 10^-5 and the n(²³²Th)/n(²²⁹Th) ratio is (3.815 ± 0.092) × 10^-4.

Keywords: Isotope dilution mass spectrometry; Nuclear forensics; Radiochronometry; Reference material; Thorium.

Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Grants and funding

9999-NIST/Intramural NIST DOC/United States