Plasma Vapor Analyzer for Characterizing Uranium and Plutonium Contamination in the Field

70133 The decommissioning and decontamination of nuclear weapons production facilities is an expensive and time-consuming operation. One of the most challenging tasks is identifying the location of plutonium and uranium contamination within a given facility. Physical samples must be collected and sent to a remote laboratory for analysis, greatly impeding the demolition operation and driving up cleanup costs. This project will develop a new analytical instrument, the Plasma Vapor Analyzer, for rapid on-site detection of transuranic wastes. Phase I will build a prototype analyzer and demonstrate its capabilities for surface detection of tantalum (a plutonium surrogate) and uranium. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The Plasma Vapor Analyzer would be a new tool for characterizing the composition of surfaces. Because it is non-destructive, economical, and deployable in the field on almost any solid object, it should find wide commercial application and benefit many industries. In particular, the instrument should allow contaminated sites within the DOE nuclear weapons complex to be cleaned up quickly, safely, and at greatly reduced costs.