High concentration measurements of U and Pu with nondestructive and standardless K‐edge densitometer device

Abstract

In nuclear activities such as reprocessing plants, safeguard laboratories, or research centers, U and Pu are regularly analyzed. Fast and accurate analytical devices are favored such as K-edge densitometer. This paper presents the results obtained by this device from assay samples with high U and Pu concentrations. Two processing methods without calibration (except energy calibration) are compared and discussed. Despite literature advising against the use of estimated mass attenuation coefficients for near edge energy, this study shows that these values can contribute to very good results for uranium and plutonium concentration estimations, with a bias less than 1%.

Development and comparison of two high accuracy methods for uranium concentration in nuclear fuel: ID-TIMS and K-edge densitometry

“…The nuclearized KED used for the experiments was previously described in details [4]. The X-ray generator and X-ray tube (W anode, MG165) are marketed by Yxlon.…”

“…The acquisition electronics are Canberra DSA-1000 coupled with Genie 2000 software. The spectral data were processed using a CEA developed software using standardless algorithms [4]. Measurements are performed without any calibration except for energy.…”

“…The CRM were chosen so that they respected different criteria: same element, similar analyte concentration and matrix. The EQRAIN solutions, provided by the CEA/CETAMA during ILC were used [4]. They were chosen because: the analyte is the same, the uranium concentrations are close (about 250 and 360 g L -1 for the EQRAIN solutions and about 280 g L -1 for the dissolution sample) and the matrix is the same (uranium only in HNO3 media).…”

“…Among the specific analytical techniques available in such facility, K-edge densitometry (KED) is an effective technique to determine uranium assay in nuclear fuel dissolution solution [4,5]. KED is an X-ray absorbance spectrometry technique based on the Beer-Lambert's law.…”

High concentration measurements of U and Pu with nondestructive and standardless K‐edge densitometer device

“…In Esbelin et al, Equation , which appeared on page 23 was published as: where I is the transmitted intensity, I 0 is the incident intensity, μ is the mass attenuation coefficient, and x is the absorber thickness in centimeters.…”