Isotopic ratio correlation for the isotopic composition analysis of plutonium in Am-Pu mixed samples having high americium content.

Interference of high amount of americium in the plutonium isotopic composition analysis has been studied by simulating gamma-ray spectra for Am–Pu samples over a wide composition range (5–97% 241Am) for both power and research reactor grade plutonium. An alternate way for isotopic composition analysis has been proposed by correlating the isotopic ratios available in our old database with the experimentally obtained 241Pu/239Pu isotopic ratio. The proposed method has been validated using simulated spectra of known isotopic compositions.