ISOTOPE CORRELATIONS FOR ALPHA-SPECIFIC ACTIVITY AND ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION OF PLUTONIUM

Correlations are developed among the Pu-238/(Pu-239+Pu-240) alpha acti vity ratio, the alpha specific activity of Pu and atom% abundances of Pu isotopes for plutonium obtained from pressurized heavy water reacto rs (PHWRs). Using the experimentally determined Pu-238/(Pu-239+Pu-240) alpha activity ratio, the alpha specific activity of Pu as well as th e atom% abundances of different isotopes of plutonium can be obtained from these correlations, without performing mass spectrometric analysi s of Pu sample. These correlations are useful for plutonium determinat ion by radiometric methods in a number of instances. Accuracies of bet ter than 0.5% are demonstrated for alpha specific activity of Pu and a tom% abundance of Pu-239. An accuracy of about 1% is shown for Pu-238 and Pu-240 whereas accuracy values range from 1 to 5% for Pu-241 and P u-242.