Direct Determination of Silver in Uranium-Zirconium-Based Metallic Fuel Using GFAAS: An Insight Into the Effect of Matrix on the Atomization of Silver

Abstract

Atomization of silver in a U+Zr matrix was studied and the effect of Zr/U+Zr composition of the matrix on analyte absorbance was investigated. The changes observed in the absorbance signals for the analyte with a change in composition of the U+Zr matrix are correlated to the relative oxygen partial pressures of UO 2 and ZrO 2. In these studies the direct determination of trace levels of silver in a U+Zr matrix containing 20% Zr was performed by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS), resulting in a relative precision of approximately ±10%. The method was also evaluated by analyzing synthetic U+Zr samples and the results agreed favorably with the added contents. It is of significance to note that the present method gains in importance due to its ability to determine silver without the need of prior chemical separation of the U+Zr matrix. The analytical procedure developed can be applied to the rapid analyses of fast breeder reactor (FBR) sample solutions without pre-treatment of the samples such as separation and pre-concentration of the matrix.