Determination of 241Am isotope: a review of analytical methodology

A great number of analytical methods have been developed and applied for the determination of Am-241 isotope in environmental and nuclear samples using various measuring techniques, i.e. alpha and gamma spectrometry, liquid scintillation counting and mass spectrometry. This paper is intended to give an overview about the development of the radiochemical procedures for the separation of americium starting with a brief description of the analytical procedures from the historic times, followed by a more detailed discussion of the recent developments from the middle of 1990s till 2009 and giving an outlook to the procedures under development aiming the technological separation of americium from radioactive wastes and process solutions for purposes of partitioning of minor actinides. Nuclear measuring techniques and mass spectrometric techniques will be comparatively evaluated.