Chemical-Spectroscopic Determination of the Isotope Composition and Gravimetric Content of Uranium in Uranium–Aluminum Alloys and Products of Their Processing

Abstract

Conditions of chemical separation of Al macroamounts and U microamounts, followed by atomic emission spectroscopic determination of the isotope composition and gravimetric content of U, were studied. An algorithm was developed for constructing calibration plots to determine the ²³⁵U/²³⁸U isotope ratio in various samples from nuclear fuel reprocessing. Optimum conditions of the spectral analysis for the U content were found by mathematical design of the experiment: NaCl content 2%, current 18 А, and exposure time 40 s. With the use of these conditions and of a specially developed form of carbon electrode, the uranium detection limit was decreased from 10^–3 to 10^–5%.