Rapid Method To Determine 137Cs, 237Np, and Pu Isotopes in Seawater by SF-ICP-MS

Neptunium-237, owing to its long half-life (t1/2 = 2.14 × 106 year) and similar conservatism to 137Cs, has the potential to replace 137Cs for water mass circulation studies on decades and even longer time scales. A new method for the determination of 137Cs, 237Np, and Pu isotopes in seawater samples was proposed to solve the difficulty of 237Np analysis in seawater. The developed method includes the separation technique of ammonium phosphomolybdate (AMP) adsorption for 137Cs and anion exchange chromatography for 237Np and Pu, a measurement technique of gamma spectrometry for 137Cs and SF-ICP-MS for 237Np and Pu isotopes. 242Pu as a pseudo isotope dilution tracer for Np, the negligible chemical fractionation between 237Np and 242Pu of 1.02 ± 0.06 (k = 2) was obtained by implementing sophisticated control of the redox system and chromatographic elution optimization. The analytical results for the International Atomic Energy Agency Certified Reference Materials (IAEA-443) agreed with the reference values, showing chemical yields of 65–88%, U decontamination factor above 106 level, and improved sample throughput (5 days for 12 samples). Meanwhile, the lower method detection limits (MDLs) of 237Np, 239Pu, and 240Pu were 1.3 × 10–3, 0.065, and 0.15 μBq L–1 for 15 L seawater, respectively. Results obtained by the developed method can be used to evaluate the impact on the marine ecological system of the planned marine discharge of Fukushima decontaminated wastewater. Working toward that purpose, we are the first to report the 237Np activity concentration in Pacific Ocean seawater sampled near the station site, and we obtained the value of 0.122–0.154 μBq L–1.