Fission product ⁹⁵Zr corrections for Zr analysis in U-Zr alloy samples by instrumental neutron activation analysis

U-Zr and U-Pu-Zr metallic alloys are considered as nuclear fuel for future fast breeder reactors (FBRs) in India. These alloys consist of 6-10% of zirconium to increase their melting temperature. Fabrication of metallic slugs involves the preparation of alloy from pure metals, melting of prepared alloys and injection casting at high pressure. It has been decided to use U-6wt%Zr alloy for developing the technologies like fuel slug fabrication. However, the chemical analysis of prepared U-Zr slugs for their homogeneity is a challenging task and potential concern. The various analytical techniques can be employed to analyze their individual elemental composition. Neutron activation analysis (NAA), is a nondestructive analytical technique for the analysis of prepared U-Zr alloys. The study confirmed that the response function (corrected CPS) is linear and hence can be applied for analyzing U-Zr samples having similar weight as that of uranium standard used for fission product correction. Similarly, activities of various other fission products which can interfere in their elemental analysis (Mo, Ce, Sm etc.) in presence of uranium were also studied