Development of a Method to Perform Radiological Measurements on Samples from Rapid Gas-Phase Separations

Chemical separations in the gas phase are currently being investigated as a method to separate important heavy fission fragment lanthanide complexes from lighter fission fragments and heavier actinide species. Using this method to separate these fission fragments provides an opportunity rapidly separate samples into constituent chemical components. Various radiological measurement techniques (alpha, beta, and gamma) are being explored to analyze the separated actinide components. As there is no commercial instrument to make such a measurement a method currently employed in super-heavy element spectrometry will be adapted perform radiological measurements on the separated constituents. This instrument, MANON (Measurement system for the Alpha- particle and spontaneous fissioN events ON-line), consists of a rotating wheel apparatus where gas-phase samples can be condensed onto measurement locations and rotated under an alpha particle detector. A coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and Monte Carlo radiation transport design approach is being employed in this effort. This approach provides the capability to predict the instrument operating characteristics under a variety of conditions.