Abstract

The spectrographic analysis of plutonium for impurity elements is not without difficulties due to the complex emission spectrum of plutonium and to its toxicity. Separating the plutonium from the elements of interest would reduce the spectral interference and also the health hazard. In the determination of zirconium in plutonium reported here, the plutonium was separated from zirconium by retaining the plutonium as a nitrate complex on the anion exchange resin, Dowex-1, while collecting the zirconium in the effluent and wash solution. The combined effluent and wash solutions were evaporated to a small volume and the resulting solution analyzed for zirconium by graphite spark excitation using cobalt as the internal standard. Concentrations as low as 20 ppm of zirconium in plutonium have been determined with a precision of ± 17% (<i>95%</i> c.l.) for a single measurement.

Spectrochemical Analysis by the Copper Spark Method*

Mark Fred, Norman H. Nachtrieb, and Frank S. Tomkins
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 37(4) 279-287 (1947)

Ionization potential of neutral atomic plutonium determined by laser spectroscopy

Earl F. Worden, Lee R. Carlson, Steve A. Johnson, Jeffrey A. Paisner, and Richard W. Solarz
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 10(11) 1998-2005 (1993)

Quantitative Spectrographic Analysis of Zirconium-Hafnium Mixtures*

Velmer A. Fassel and Charles H. Anderson
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 40(11) 742-747 (1950)

Determination of ion-exchanged channel waveguide profile parameters by mode-index measurements

Martin N. Weiss and Ramakant Srivastava
Appl. Opt. 34(3) 455-458 (1995)

Determination of refractive index profiles of Ag⁺-Na⁺ ion-exchange multimode strip waveguides by variable wavefront shear double-refracting interferometry microinterferometry

Piotr Mrozek, Ewa Mrozek, and Tadeusz Lukaszewicz
Appl. Opt. 45(4) 756-763 (2006)