Improvement in Thermal-Ionization Mass Spectrometry (TIMS) using Total Flash Evaporation (TFE) method for lanthanides isotope ratio measurements in transmutation targets

The experiments involved in the PHENIX french nuclear reactor to obtain precise and accurate data on the total capture cross sections of the heavy isotopes and fission products require isotopic ratios measurements with uncertainty of a few per mil. These accurate isotopic ratio meaurements are performed with mass spectrometer equipped with multicollector system. The major difficulty for the analyses of these actinides and fission products is the low quantity of the initial powder enclosed in steel container (3 to 5 mg) and the very low quantities of products formed (several μg) after irradiation. Specific analytical developments are performed by Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry (TIMS) to be able to analyse several nanograms of elements with this technique. A specific method of acquisition named Total Flash Evaporation was adapted in this study in the case of lanthanide measurements for quantity deposited on the filament in the order of 2ng and applied on irradiated fuel. To validate the analytical approach and discuss about the accuracy of the data, the isotopic ratios obtained by TIMS are compared with other mass spectrometric techniques such as Multiple-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (MC-ICPMS).