[en] In the current analytical practice determination of nongamma-emitting radionuclides relies on manual radiochemical analysis methods performed in centralized laboratories. Manual methods are not well suited to support nuclear waste processing and long-term environmental monitoring applications. Our research is directed at the development of chemical and instrumentation approaches towards automated radiochemical analysis and radionuclide-specific sensing, Our overall approach is based on integrating selective separation chemistries and radiation detection instruments within a single functional sensor or analyzer device. Examples of selective radiometric sensing of beta- and alpha-emitters in water will be described. Analysis of total 99Tc and actinides in aged nuclear waste samples will be presented as examples of automated analytical procedures and analyzer instruments

[en] Electron-capture delayed fission was observed in ²⁴⁴Es produced via the ²³⁷Np(¹²C,5n)²⁴⁴Es reaction at 81 MeV (on target) with a production cross section of 0.31±0.12 (micro)b. The mass-yield distribution of the fission fragments is highly asymmetric. The average preneutron-emission total kinetic energy of the fragments was measured to be 186±19 MeV. Based on the ratio of the number of fission events to the measured number of α decays from the electron-capture daughter ²⁴⁴Cf (100% α branch), the probability of delayed fission was determined to be (1.2±0.4) x 10^-4. This value for the delayed fission probability fits the experimentally observed trend of increasing delayed fission probability with increasing Q value for electron-capture