Improved measurement of aluminum in irradiated fuel reprocessed at the Savannah River Site

This paper reports that at the Savannah River Site (SRS), irradiated fuel from research reactor operators or their contract fuel service companies is reprocessed in the H-Canyon Separations Facility. Final processing costs are based on analytical measurements of the amount of total metal dissolved. Shipper estimates for uranium and uranium-235 and measured values at SRS have historically agreed very well. There have occasional been significant differences between shipper estimates for aluminum and the aluminum content determined at SRS. To minimize analytical error that might contribute to poor shipper-receiver agreement for the reprocessing of offsite fuel, and new analytical method to measure aluminum was developed by SRS Analytical Laboratories at the Central Laboratory Facilities. An EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) titration method, subject to dissolver matrix interferences, was previously used at SRS to measure aluminum in H-Canyon dissolver during the reprocessing of offsite fuel