Plutonium Determination by Spectrophotometry of Plutonium. VI. Control of the Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Plant

摘要

The plutonium (VI) spectrophotometric determination, after AgO oxidation in 3 M nitric acid medium, is used for the running-control of the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at La Hague. Analytical device used in glove-box or shielded-cell is briefly described. This method is fast, sensitive, unfailing and gives simple effluents. It is applied by day and night shifts, during Light Water Reactor fuel reprocessing campaign, for 0.5 mg/l up to 20 g/l plutonium solutions. Reference solution measurements have a 0.8 to 1.4% relative standard deviation; duplicate plutonium determinations give a 0.3% relative standard deviation for sample analysis. There is a discrepancy (-0.3% to -0.9%) between the spectrophotometric method results and the isotopic dilution analysis. (ERA citation 09:030409)