“…However, within four days after contact of the reagents with Tank 5F sludge samples, the purple color of the permanganate in the more dilute reagent was observed to disappear, indicating a reaction between permanganate and reductants in the waste (such as oxalate anions). Subsequent analysis of the filtered solutions from these tests at approximately 4, 12, and 14 days (Table 3 -8) revealed that the plutonium concentrations observed for the dilute permanganate solution ranged from 3E-07 to 8E-07 M while the concentrations observed for the more concentrated permanganate reagent (0.05 M) ranged from 2E-06 to 3E-06 M. For comparison, plutonium concentrations observed by this method using radioactive simulants were near 7E-06 M. 13 As shown in Table 3-9, the plutonium concentrations observed for the more concentrated permanganate reagent correspond to only 3-4% removal of plutonium from the sample.…”