Assessing hand-held Raman spectrometer FirstDefender RM for nuclear safeguards applications

摘要

The performance and applicability of the hand-held Raman spectrometer FirstDefender RM (Thermo Scientific) to nuclear safeguards field were assessed. More than 100 different uranium ore concentrates, frequently referred to as yellow cake, were measured and wherever applicable library scans were collected. A subset of the samples was then used to test the identification capability of the instrument. The accuracy of identification was shown to be sound for uranyl peroxide, sodium diuranate, ammonium diuranate, uranium trioxide and ammonium uranyl carbonate. The study also demonstrated the instrument's potential for a quick quantitative determination of the uranium concentration in uranyl nitrate solutions.