Estimation of metallic impurities in uranium by carrier distillation method

An emission spectrographic method has been standardised for the estimation of twenty-two metallic impurities in uranium using carrier-distillation technique. Silver chloride with a concentration of 5% has been used as the carrier and palladium and gallium are used as internal standards. Precision and accuracy determinations of the synthetic samples indicate 6-15% deviation for most of the elements. Using the method described here, five uranium reference samples received from C.E.A.-France were analysed. The detection limits obtained for Cd, Co and W are lower than those reported in the literature while limits for the remaining elements are comparable to the values reported. The method is suitable for the chemical quality control analysis of uranium used for the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) fuel. (author)