AMS of the Minor Plutonium Isotopes

VERA, the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator, is especially equipped for the measurement of actinides, and performs a growing number of measurements on environmental samples. While AMS is not the optimum method for each particular plutonium isotope, the possibility to measure (239)Pu, (240)Pu, (241)Pu, (242)Pu and (244)Pu on the same AMS sputter target is a great simplification. We have obtained a first result on the global fallout value of (244)Pu/(239)Pu = (5.7 ± 1.0) × 10(−5) based on soil samples from Salzburg prefecture, Austria. Furthermore, we suggest using the (242)Pu/(240)Pu ratio as an estimate of the initial (241)Pu/(239)Pu ratio, which allows dating of the time of irradiation based solely on Pu isotopes. We have checked the validity of this estimate using literature data, simulations, and environmental samples from soil from the Salzburg prefecture (Austria), from the shut down Garigliano Nuclear Power Plant (Sessa Aurunca, Italy) and from the Irish Sea near the Sellafield nuclear facility. The maximum deviation of the estimated dates from the expected ages is 6 years, while relative dating of material from the same source seems to be possible with a precision of less than 2 years. Additional information carried by the minor plutonium isotopes may allow further improvements of the precision of the method.