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PUBLICATIONS

PRIMARY STANDARDIZATION OF THE MASSIC ACTIVITY OF A PROTACTINIUM-233 SOLUTION

Published

Author(s)

Ryan P. Fitzgerald, Leticia S. Pibida

Abstract

Protactinium-233 (233Pa) is used as a tracer for radiochemical analysis and is of particular interest as an isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) spike for 231Pa/235U radio- chronometry. To this end, we present massic activity determinations by two methods for a 233Pa solution, which was prepared at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and is being characterized at multiple labs as part of a 231Pa reference material production project. One activity determination method was 4πβ-γ anti-coincidence counting in a multi-dimensional extrapolation model, with Monte Carlo corrections. An independent massic activity determination was completed by gamma-ray spectrometry using 5 HPGe detectors using 5 gamma-ray lines. The anti-coincidence and gamma-ray spectrometry results agree and have combined standard uncertainties of about 0.33 % and 1.0 % respectively. In addition, the two methods were combined to derive gamma-ray emission probabilities from 233Pa decay.
Citation
Journal of Radioanalytical Nuclear Chemistry
Pub Type
Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-018-6113-9

Keywords

protactinium, radiochronometry, radioactivity standard
Analytical chemistry, Nuclear physics and Radiation

Citation

Fitzgerald, R. and Pibida, L. (2018), PRIMARY STANDARDIZATION OF THE MASSIC ACTIVITY OF A PROTACTINIUM-233 SOLUTION, Journal of Radioanalytical Nuclear Chemistry, [online], https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-018-6113-9 (Accessed October 27, 2025)

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Created August 23, 2018, Updated November 10, 2018
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