Determination of impurities in uranium compounds

The compounds of nuclear purity uranium to be of interest and used in the manufacture of the fuel, must meet certain requirements to ensure quality, this means they must have a concentration according to international standards, especially those elements that are effective neutron capture. This paper presents the study of the determination of impurities in uranium compounds. Determine impurities are Silver, Lithium, Phosphorous, Silicon, Tungsten, and Zirconium making use of the atomic emission spectroscopy induced plasma source (ICP-OES) as an analytical technique and 1:1 TEHP-n-hexane as an organic extraction for chemical separation of uranium. Initially we studied the potential interference of the uranium remaining in each wavelength to determine for each analyte, after extraction with organic. The separation of uranium with its impurities is necessary because it interferes with its emission spectral lines at wavelengths of each analyte being determined. Then evaluated recoveries of each analyte from a matrix of uranium by subjecting to the same extraction. To end with the determination of the concentrations of Ag, Li, P, Si, W and Zr from a certified sample of uranium by ICP-OES technique The result of the analyses studied was satisfactory in the recovery of Zr and W, therefore, the method was validated for these two elements