Determination of plutonium in spent nuclear fuel using high resolution X-ray

Journal Article · Sat May 30 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Spectrochimica Acta. Part B, Atomic Spectroscopy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sab.2015.05.014· OSTI ID:1312565

McIntosh, Kathryn G. ^[1]; Reilly, Sean D. ^[1]; Havrilla, George J. ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Characterization of Pu is an essential aspect of safeguards operations at nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities. A novel analysis technique called hiRX (high resolution X-ray) has been developed for the direct measurement of Pu in spent nuclear fuel dissolver solutions. hiRX is based on monochromatic wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (MWDXRF), which provides enhanced sensitivity and specificity compared with conventional XRF techniques. A breadboard setup of the hiRX instrument was calibrated using spiked surrogate spent fuel (SSF) standards prepared as dried residues. Samples of actual spent fuel were utilized to evaluate the performance of the hiRX. The direct detection of just 39 ng of Pu is demonstrated. Initial quantitative results, with error of 4–27% and precision of 2% relative standard deviation (RSD), were obtained for spent fuel samples. The limit of detection for Pu (100 s) within an excitation spot of 200 μm diameter was 375 pg. This study demonstrates the potential for the hiRX technique to be utilized for the rapid, accurate, and precise determination of Pu. Moreover, the results highlight the analytical capability of hiRX for other applications requiring sensitive and selective nondestructive analyses.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1312565
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1249982
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-14-28020
• Journal Information: Spectrochimica Acta. Part B, Atomic Spectroscopy, Vol. 110, Issue C; ISSN 0584-8547
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
analytical chemistry
XRF
hiRX
elemental analysis
elemental mapping
spent nuclear fuel