99Tc is a contaminant of interest at numerous nuclear facilities because it is quite mobile in sub-surface environments and is a key contributor to long-term risk. However, as a mono-isotopic fission product, 99Tc is limited in its use as a signature to differentiate between different waste disposal pathways that could have contributed to sub-surface contamination at these facilities. The analytical approach documented in this paper provides an efficient and cost-effective way to precisely measure ruthenium isotopes and quantitate total ruthenium (natural versus fission-product) in aqueous matrixes.

Citation: Brown, C.F., Dresel, P.E., Geiszler, K.N., and Farmer, O.T. "Precise ruthenium fission product isotopic analysis using dynamic reaction cell inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry." Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry 21 (2006): 955-962.

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