X-ray absorption multi-edge analysis method for simultaneous determination of U and Pu concentrations in solution

BackgroundDetermination of uranium and plutonium in fast reactor spent fuel reprocessing is vital for the quality control of process and products.PurposeThis study aims to establish a non-destructive analytical method for simultaneous determination of uranium and plutonium.MethodsThe X-ray absorption spectrum method based on K-edge and L-edge of U and Pu was applied to developing the determination method of uranium and plutonium content. After obtaining the spectra of standard mixture solutions of U and Pu samples, a standard data process for mathematical model based on multivariate linear fitting method was established to simultaneously measure the concentration of uranium and plutonium in solution. Finally, measurements were conducted on samples with different concentrations to evaluate the stability and accuracy of the quantitative analysis method.ResultsMeasurement result shows that the relative deviation of measurement results is within 5% within the concentration range of 20 g∙L-1 to 100 g∙L-1 for uranium and 10 g∙L-1 to 40 g∙L-1 for plutonium. The precision of uranium is better than 2.5% and the precision of plutonium was better than 3.4%.ConclusionsThe established method can be used for the quantitative analysis of uranium and plutonium with good measurement accuracy and repeatability, hence be used in practical application.