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Title: Microfluidic In-Situ Spectrophotometric Approaches to Tackle Actinides Analysis in Multiple Oxidation States

Journal Article · · Applied Spectroscopy
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  1. CEA, DES, ISEC, DMRC, Univ Montpellier, Marcoule, France
  2. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
  3. Laboratoire de Génie Chimique–CNRS, Toulouse, France
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The study and development of present and future processes for the treatment/recycling of spent nuclear fuels require many steps, from design in the laboratory to setting up on an industrial scale. In all of these steps, analysis and instrumentation are key points. For scientific reasons (small-scale studies, control of phenomena, etc.) but also with regard to minimizing costs, risks, and waste, such developments are increasingly carried out on milli- or microfluidic devices. The logic is the same for the chemical analyses associated with their follow-up and interpretation. Due to this, over the last few years, opto–microfluidic analysis devices adapted to the monitoring of different processes (dissolution, liquid–liquid extraction, precipitation, etc.) have been increasingly designed and developed. In this work, we prove that photonic lab-on-a-chip (PhLoC) technology is fully suitable for all actinides concentration monitoring along the plutonium uranium refining extraction (plutonium, uranium, reduction, extraction, or Purex) process. Several PhLoC microfluidic platforms were specifically designed and used in different nuclear research and development (R&D) laboratories, to tackle actinides analysis in multiple oxidation states even in mixtures. The detection limits reached (tens of µmol·L −1 ) are fully compliant with on-line process monitoring, whereas a range of analyzable concentrations of three orders of magnitude can be covered with less than 150 µL of analyte. Finally, this work confirms the possibility and the potential of coupling Raman and ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopies at the microfluidic scale, opening the perspective of measuring very complex mixtures.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1866842
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1908801
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-164597
Journal Information:
Applied Spectroscopy, Journal Name: Applied Spectroscopy Vol. 76 Journal Issue: 5; ISSN 0003-7028
Publisher:
SAGE PublicationsCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (9)

Sequential determination of uranium (IV), free acidity and hydrazine in a single aliquot journal July 2010
Uranium(VI) speciation by spectroscopy journal October 1997
Photonic Lab-on-a-Chip: Integration of Optical Spectroscopy in Microfluidic Systems journal May 2016
Probing Uranium(IV) Hydrolyzed Colloids and Polymers by Light Scattering journal March 2014
Absorption of Light in Organic Compounds journal October 1934
Broadcasting photonic lab on a chip concept through a low cost manufacturing approach journal August 2017
Molecule-radiation and molecule-molecule processes in condensed media: a microscopic QED theory journal September 1995
Spectrophotometric determination of uranium and nitric acid by applying partial least-squares regression to uranium(VI) absorption spectra journal November 1991
Spectrophotometric Determination of Plutonium in Highly Radioactive Liquid Waste Using an Internal Standardization Technique with Neodymium(III) journal January 2008

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