Novel Analyses of Hanford Plutonium Particles
EMSL Project ID
50920
Abstract
Understanding the chemical speciation of plutonium particles currently in the ground at the Hanford site has major implications for nuclear forensics (looking back in time at which processes produced which particles) and environmental management (what the fate and transport of these particles will be in the future). Although the bulk plutonium species is thought to be plutonium oxide, there are other associated elements and a wide array of morphologies indicating more complex mechanisms could be at play. For the first time, our research team has successfully employed atom probe tomography (APT) to study these plutonium-containing particles which provides an atomic 3D reconstruction from the inside out. These groundbreaking data are supported by our use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and single crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD) to further probe their complex chemical compositions. Our team needs your support to complete our analyses and publish these results in a high impact journal highlighting PNNL as a leader in environmental management and world class capabilities to analyze nuclear material. This work will inform and enhance the body of knowledge available for plutonium contamination at the Hanford site as well as demonstrate to the scientific community the advanced capabilities that PNNL has available to analyze highly radioactive materials. This successful project will produce a peer reviewed manuscript in a high impact journal reporting a stepwise process of soil particle screening using SEM/EDS and further chemical speciation analysis using SC-XRD and APT to provide a more complete story of each particle.
Project Details
Start Date
2019-10-30
End Date
2020-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members