Line Spectrophotometric Measurement of Uranium and Nitrate in H Canyon

摘要

Successful and timely completion of the Highly Enriched Uranium Blend Down Project requires an aggressive processing schedule. One of the requirements for meeting the schedule is the use of on-line instrumentation to eliminate the delays associated with the analysis of samples extracted from process tanks. The Analytical Development Section of the Savannah River Technology Center has developed on-line spectrophotometers to measure uranium and nitric acid concentrations in tanks in H Canyon. Development areas addressed in this report include air-lift samplers, instrument control and analysis software, and diode array spectrophotometers. A total of nine tanks will be analyzed using two spectrophotometers. The acquired spectra are interpreted using partial leastsquares models which are valid for solutions with uranium concentrations up to 11 g/L and nitrate concentrations as high as 6 M. This report describes the on-line instrumentation developed by the Analytical Development Section of Savannah River Technology Center in support of Highly Enriched Uranium Blend Down processing in H Canyon.