Speaker
Description
Pd‑107 is the second longest‑lived fission product after iodine‑129, with a half‑life of 6.5 × 10⁶ years. Owing to its persistence and radiological relevance, reliable quantification of Pd‑107 is essential for assessing inventories in spent nuclear fuel and high‑level radioactive waste. Since Pd‑107 is a pure β‑emitter with a maximum β‑energy of 34.1 keV and lacks γ‑emission, its analytical determination relies on β‑particle detection or mass spectrometry. The long half‑life favours mass‑spectrometric techniques, which allow lower detection limits and require smaller sample quantities. However, accurate analysis is hindered by isobaric interference from stable Ag‑107, making an effective chemical separation step indispensable.
In this study, we report current progress in development of a method for efficient determination of Pd-107 in radioactive waste, which is based on column extraction chromatographic separation based on TK200 Resin or Ni Resin for separating of Pd from Ag and achieving the required separation factor for mass spectrometric determination of Pd-107. Experiments involved testing and optimization of separation performance of both extraction chromatographic resin, as well as optimization of ICP-QQQ-MS measurements. Special emphasis was devoted to try to utilize capability of ICP-QQQ-MS reaction cell for removal of Ag-107 isobaric interference by introduction of different inert or reaction gases.
The obtained results reveal that Ni Resin provides the most efficient and reproducible separation performance. The results of measurements with ICP-QQQ-MS reveal that there are limited possibilities of utilizing different reaction gases to improve separation of Ag from Pd during measurement as in most studied cases both elements behave similarly. Therefore, the most important is to separate Pd from Ag efficiently before introduction to ICP-QQQ-MS instrument, although utilization of reactive gases might improve overall method performance.
Acknowledgements:
This work was co-funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement n°101166718 and the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency programme P1 0143 and P2 0075.