Proving the completeness of plutonium dioxide dissolution and evaluating the trueness of the procedure for determining the gravimetric plutonium content by automatic coulometric titration

Abstract

The influence of various factors on the completeness of transfer of crystalline PuO₂ into solution by fusion with NaHSO₄, followed by dissolution of the fusion cake in 1 M HClO₄, was studied. The process parameters such as temperature, PuO₂ to NaHSO₄ weight ratio, and fusion time were optimized. The completeness of the PuO₂ dissolution under the chosen conditions was proved, and the trueness of the procedure for coulometric titration of Pu(VI) with electrochemically generated Fe(II) ions was evaluated.