Dear ResearchGate community,
I've been looking at the nuclear data of 239Pu and 240Pu, and trying to understand how one could differentiate them if measured by alpha spectrometry.
They have pretty much identical energy and emission probability of the alpha particles emitted.
Is it understood that one can never differentiate them and thus always report the activity as the sum of 239+240Pu?
Of course, if it is really old Plutonium, one could potentially differentiate them by their decay products, but this question is for "fresh" Plutonium.
Thank you for your time
Have you attempted to use low energy photon spectroscopy (LEPS) on a low-mass-attenuated mount to differentiate the isotopes via their low energy gamma emissions?
Dear Matt,
No, I haven't. I am just wondering how people go about it when only analyzing by alpha spectrometry.
Thanks
Because of the inteference of the different alpha peaks of 239Pu and 240Pu, even with the best detectors available for current alpha spectrometry, it is necessary to proceed to a deconvolution of the spectrum . Several algorithms and softwares were proposed for this purpose. See e.g. Pöllännen et al. Appl. Rad. Isot. 70(2012)733 , Raab et al. Nucl. Inst. Meth. 339(1994)116, Srinivasan et al. Appl.Rad.Isot. 64(2005)591, Ramebäck et al. Appl.Rad.Isot. 164(2020) and other (many of them devoted to the determination of the 240Pu/239Pu ratio)