Determination of plutonium content in high burnup pressurized water reactor fuel samples and its use for isotope correlations for isotopic composition of plutonium.

The content of plutonium isotopes in high burnup pressurized water reactor fuel samples was examined using both alpha spectrometry and mass spectrometry after anion exchange separation. The measured values were compared with results calculated by the ORIGEN-2 code. On average, the ratios (m/c) of the measured values (m) over the calculated values (c) were 1.

Isotope correlations for determining the isotopic composition of plutonium in high burnup pressurized water reactor (PWR) samples.

Correlations among the alpha activity ratios of (238)Pu/((239)Pu+(240)Pu), the alpha specific activities of Pu and the atom % abundances of Pu isotopes were derived for the plutonium samples obtained from high burnup fuel samples from pressurized water reactors. Using the alpha activity ratios of (238)Pu/((239)Pu+(240)Pu) determined by alpha spectrometry, the alpha specific activities of Pu as well as the atom % abundances of the plutonium isotopes in the unknown samples were calculated without depending on mass spectrometry. The calculated alpha specific activities of Pu agreed with those determined by experiment within 2%, and the atom % abundances of the Pu isotopes agreed within 4% for (238)Pu, 5% for (239)Pu, 7% for (240)Pu and 5% for (242)Pu, respectively.

Precipitation characteristics of uranyl ions at different pHs depending on the presence of carbonate ions and hydrogen peroxide.

This work studied the dissolution of uranium dioxide and precipitation characteristics of uranyl ions in alkaline and acidic solutions depending on the presence of carbonate ions and H2O2 in the solutions at different pHs controlled by adding HNO3 or NaOH in the solution. The chemical structures of the precipitates generated in different conditions were evaluated and compared by using XRD, SEM, TG-DT, and IR analyses together. The sizes and forms of the precipitates in the solutions were evaluated, as well.

Elution behavior for a large sample size of uranyl ions on reversed-phase columns using alpha-hydroxyisobutyric acid as an eluent.

Large sample sizes of uranyl ions are eluted on a strenedivinylbenzene copolymer phase and an octadecyl phase column, respectively, using alpha-hydroxyisobutyric acid (alpha-HiBA) as an eluent. Chromatograms are obtained from variations of the uranyl sample amounts, eluent concentrations, concentrations of the sample matrix, and the pH of the sample solution for both columns, respectively. Column capacities are estimated from the loading factors measured from the retention times of the peaks.