Review Of Portable Mass Spectrometric And Alternative Techniques For Fieldable Enrichment Assay Of Uf6 And Related Environmental Samples

Instrumentation to make in-field isotopic measurements for verification of UF6 enrichment and analysis of environmental samples without the need for complicated sample handling procedures would greatly expand the toolbox available to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors. Currently, only the Combined Procedure for Uranium Concentration and Enrichment Assay (COMPUCEA) method is used for onsite destructive analysis measurements, and it requires a significant amount of sample processing by a highly trained subject matter expert. A scoping study conducted in 2017 evaluated current state-of-the-art and emerging technologies for in-field analysis of UF6 enrichment. The present work updates this study and expands the scope to include: 1.) advances in emerging technologies for in-field UF6 enrichment assay since 2017; 2.) a comprehensive evaluation of technologies for in-field screening of environmental samples (ES); 3.) a market survey of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment currently available for in-field use, as well as some general considerations that any research efforts to develop COTS instruments for the UF6 and ES use cases should address. The IAEA concept of operations (CONOPS) for the UF6 use case is the most well documented, and thus a complete evaluation of 14 emerging technologies, including the benchmark COMPUCEA technique, are systematically evaluated against 11 metrics related to in-field use and performance. The evaluation lead to six techniques being recommended for further study, with two additional techniques considered promising. For in-field ES analysis the CONOPS is less defined, necessitating assumptions be made about requirements and preventing a full evaluation using established metrics. Some useful insight could still be gained, however, and in all, six candidate techniques were evaluated, of which three were identified as potential candidates that might warrant further study. The COTS survey showed that no fit-for-purpose portable mass spectrometer exists with demonstrated performance on heavy metal analysis or isotope ratio measurements.