PNNL

Megan Nims has worked alongside earth scientist Eirik Krogstad for many years. Yet, she was still surprised when he shared a dream about a sophisticated mass spectrometer unlike anything that existed.

“Looking back, it was one of those sparks of creative genius that you’re always lucky to encounter,” said Nims, a chemist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

Last year, Krogstad’s vision became a reality when the Sapphire 1700 was installed in a lab at PNNL, the only mass spectrometer in the world that can measure all uranium and plutonium isotopes simultaneously at very low levels.

This was the culmination of years of perseverance, from envisioning the design to convincing a company like Nu Instruments that it could be built to working with the manufacturer to push the conventional designs of a mass spectrometer.

While typical mass spectrometers have a varying number of detectors, PNNL’s Sapphire 1700 has far more than any similar instrument with 22 detectors, which include 12 that are ion-counting detectors.

Scientific precision

Crime scene evidence, contaminated foods, farm soil, and pharmaceutical drugs are a few examples of how mass spectrometers are used to evaluate items that touch everyday lives.

Scientifically speaking, a mass spectrometer is an instrument that measures the mass-to-charge ratio of tiny particles. It has three main sections: ionization, ion separation, and detection. Mass spectrometers need very small amounts of atoms, molecules, or isotopes to help identify unknown substances.

Supporting the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Sapphire 1700 is used to deter the spread of nuclear weapons. By analyzing nuclear material samples, it enables early detection of nuclear materials or technologies that have been potentially misused.

The PNNL team leading the work with Sapphire 1700 includes Nims, who is the task lead; Krogstad, visionary and subject matter expert; chemist Tyler Schlieder; earth scientist Alex Iveson; and chemist Nick Richard. Schlieder and Iveson are the project’s technical leads.

“It’s not trivial to calibrate an instrument like this,” said Schlieder. “Since it’s been in operation, we’ve completed validation of 110 measurements in just over three months. It’s even more amazing when you realize there’s no instrument in the world that can do this.”

With its custom design, the Sapphire 1700 measures uranium and plutonium isotopes simultaneously. After a year of daily calibrations and a streamlined process in place, the Sapphire 1700 has proven the skeptics wrong. The PNNL team has seen analysis times nearly cut in half with accurate results, while removing interferences that negatively affect the results.

International spotlight

Seventeen laboratories make up the IAEA’s Network of Analytical Laboratories. PNNL is a member of this network, along with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Savannah River National Laboratory.

With an increase in modular nuclear technologies, the PNNL team is anticipating growing demand for environmental sample analysis. PNNL researchers have seen how Sapphire 1700 has made the measurement process more efficient.

In July, Schlieder represented PNNL at the Goldschmidt Conference, one of the largest geochemistry industry events, to share the progress of Sapphire 1700.

The presentation, titled “Simultaneous measurement of U and Pu isotopes in environmental samples using large collector array MC-ICP-MS in support of nuclear safeguards,” was selected as one of the keynote talks by the conference organizers.

“People were definitely interested in the capabilities,” he said. “It was rewarding to share how we demonstrated something novel and unique.”

The PNNL researchers know there is a lot to learn about what the Sapphire 1700 can do.

“A lot of capabilities that the instrument comes with we haven’t been able to characterize yet,” he said. “As we start playing around with more of the instruments, one thing that we’ve kept in mind is that we’re ideally developing something that could be implemented elsewhere, making the benefit more widespread.”

Nims couldn’t agree more.

“The standard instruments are solid, but the mass spec community has seen the same challenges for many years,” said Nims. “We’ve only scratched the surface of what we can really do with this instrument. As we push to overcome some of these challenges, we’re only seeing the beginning of what’s possible.”

The Sapphire 1700 research is funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Safeguards Technology Development Program within the Office of International Nuclear Safeguards. The acquisition of the Sapphire 1700 was funded by the Department of State.