DETERMINATION OF PLUTONIUM-240 239 RATIOS IN LOW ACTIVITY SAMPLES USING HIGH-RESOLUTION ALPHA-SPECTROMETRY/

Isotopic ratios of Pu-240/Pu-239 in environmental samples can provide important data for identifying and confirming contamination sources. O ne low cost alternative for performing this analysis uses a combinatio n of high resolution alpha-spectroscopy and spectrum analysis software . This method uses unmodified, commercially available equipment and so ftware. Plutonium alpha-spectra were gathered with an alpha-spectromet er system set up for low-level actinide determination. Experimental sp ectra were imported into a commercially available data analysis progra m, and fit with mathematical descriptions of alpha-peaks using the Mar quardt-Levenberg algorithm. The spectra was then deconvoluted into its Pu-239 and Pu-240 components and the activity ratio was calculated.