The Measurement of Lithium Hydride Enrichment

Deuterons produced by a 2.5 MV Van de Graaff accelerator are used to measure the isotopic ratios of 6Li to 7Li and H to D in lithium hydride. The nuclear reactions which are used are: 2H(d,p)3H, 6Li(d,¿)4He, 7Li(d,¿)5He, 7Li(d,n¿)4He, 12C(d,p)13C, and 16O(d,p)17O. The reactions involving oxygen and carbon are used to determine the amounts of these elements on the surface which can affect the accuracy of the enrichment measurements. The ions from the different reactions are separated by E, dE/dx particle identification in order to separate protons from 4He and 5He ions. Using corrections for oxygen on the surface, 6Li enrichments accurate to 0.36 atom percent and D enrichments accurate to 2.1 atom percent were obtained.