Detection and study of plutonium-bearing particles following the reprocessing of reactor fuel

A method has been developed to identify and study individual airborne particles containing 239Pu from fission-fragment and alpha-particle tracks produced by them in a polycarbonate film with a nuclear-track-emulsion coating. Membrane filters, used to collect the particles from atmospheric effluents, are cast into films composed of a polycarbonate matrix containing the particles. When a particle is located, the amount of 239Pu in it is determined by counting the tracks, a small portion of the film containing the particle is isolated, the emulsion removed, the polycarbonate dissolved, the track replicas oxidized, and the elemental composition of the 239Pu-bearing particle determined by electron-microprobe analysis. The elemental compositions, sizes, structures, and 239Pu contents were determined for 558 plutonium-bearing particles isolated from various locations in the exhaust from a nuclear processing facility at the Savannah River Plant. These data were compared with data from natural aerosol particles