Abstract:
An ion chromatographic method for determination of plutonium in spent nuclear fuel is established. In this method uranium and plutonium-containing sample solution is loaded on an anionic exchange resin column and then eluted with 7.2 mol/L HNO
3 for uranium and 0.1 mol/L HNO
3-0.1 mol/L NaF for plutonium. The eluents are mixed on-line with the postcolumn reagent arsines Ⅲ, and the absorbencies are continuously recorded. The plutonium content is calculated from the plutonium-to-uranium peak area ratio. All these operations are implemented and controlled by a chromatographic workstation. By using this method the interference from uranium and other matrix components is eliminated, the plutoniumto uranium peak area ratio is quite stable and thus no plutonium reference is needed. The method gives an uncertainty of 2.5% and a detection limit of 0.05 mg/L of plutonium. The successful analysis of two real samples shows the feasibility of this method for determination of plutonium in spent nuclear fuel.