Use of a Focused Ion Beam for Support of LDRD on Subsampling Radioactive Materials
EMSL Project ID
48765
Abstract
PNNL boasts state-of-the-art research capabilities, which are often underutilized on highly radioactive samples due to non-dispersion requirements and limits on sample quantity that can enter workspaces. This gap highlights the need for PNNL to advance subsampling methods to exploit the full potential of PNNL capabilities on rad samples. As part of the Nuclear Processing Science Initiative (NPSI) to develop and revitalize Radiochemical Processing Laboratory (RPL), installation of a FEI Helios NanoLab 660 combination field emission scanning electron microscope and focused ion beam (FE SEM/FIB) is underway. This state of the art instrument, one of only two in a category 2 facility in the country, will be used to screen rad samples and other opportunistic nuclear materials for areas of interest, micromachine, and extract those areas for non-dispersive sample mounting by the instrument for entry into the Radiochemistry Annex of EMSL, Physical Science Facilities (PSF), and eventually EMSL itself (FY17). Unfortunately, the RPL FIB/SEM installation is stalled, so we seek to use the Quanta FIB/SEM in the EMSL Rad Annex in order to subsample similar materials, although we plan to be cautions and stepwise, i.e. we will start with easy to work with less radioactive samples such as depleted uranium metal, move on to low enriched fuel pellets, and decide which materials would be acceptable beyond that. Instrument targets, depending on the material, include PSF-3430's Cameca ims-4f secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS) and a large radius (LR) SIMS funded by NA-22 (FY17), 3410's X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and the transmission electron microscope (TEM)/scanning TEM (STEM) owned/operated by EED, and EMSL's local electron atom probe (LEAP) 400 XHR instrument. Instruments outside PNNL are also of interest, but will be reserved for the second year of this research. Successful implementation of both the RPL FIB and the Rad Annex FIB as rad subsampling instruments will put PNNL at the forefront of actinide material science, which will create future funding for the RPL, EMSL, and PNNL collectively in environmental remediation, national security, and the nuclear fuel cycle.
Project Details
Start Date
2015-02-26
End Date
2015-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Co-Investigator(s)