Parker Connor J, Peruski Kathryn M, Cary Samantha K
Radioisotope Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA.
Nuclear Energy and Fuel Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, USA.
Microsc Microanal. 2025 Feb 17;31(1). doi: 10.1093/mam/ozae112.
The production of plutonium-238 through irradiation of neptunium-237 (237Np) target materials for the use in radioisotope thermoelectric generators is paramount for continued deep space exploration. This work employs scanning electron microscopy to analyze 237Np materials coupled with a well-developed image analysis framework (Morphological Analysis for Material Attribution, or MAMA) to determine the degree of micron-scale homogeneity in the materials. This work demonstrated how the quantification of particle characteristics can validate production materials and affirm the qualitative similarities observed in micrographs. The 237Np oxide particle analysis determined that the materials from five production runs were quantitatively homogenous (significant at α = 0.05) in particle area, circularity, equivalent circular diameter, and ellipse aspect ratio, with two of the sampling dates having statistically significant different means for one of the four characteristics. These metrics not only confirm general homogeneity of the material but also expand the application of MAMA workflows to 237Np materials, demonstrating the utility of MAMA analysis for a wider breadth of nuclear materials than previously reported. In the open literature, this study is the first time that these microanalytical techniques were applied to 237Np materials to this degree.
