Determination of trace amounts of uranium in plutonium oxide by wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry

This paper presents a wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF) spectrometry based non-destructive methodology for the determination of trace level uranium in PuO₂ powder. The methodology requires pelletization of PuO₂ powder standards and samples using a hydraulic press, measuring WDXRF spectra of calibration standards and samples using U Lα X-ray as analytical line and analyzing the samples for trace amounts of uranium. The reproducibility of the analytical results using this methodology was found to be better than ± 5% (RSD, n = 5) for uranium in the range of 200-1000 µg g^-1. The samples were also analyzed for U by ICP-OES and WDXRF values showed a close agreement with those obtained by ICP-OES. (author)