Abstract
From a viewpoint of physical and chemical form estimation, ultra-trace analytical techniques of nuclear materials in environmental samples for safeguards have been investigated at Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. This article deals with (1) an outline of the developed techniques for bulk and particle analyses of uranium and plutonium in the safeguards environmental samples; (2) current R&D on techniques relating to estimation of the physical and chemical form, such as SEM images and EDX spectra for fine particles of nuclear materials and fission track observation applicable to fissile materials; and (3) possible analytical methodologies, as future works, applicable to ultra-trace amounts of nuclear materials in environmental samples.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Messrs. H. Gunji, S. Kurosawa, J. Inagawa, D. Suzuki S. Ichimura, and T. Onodera, for their help in the experimental work. A portion of this work is being performed under the auspices of MEXT of the Japanese government.