Multi-element solution L-XRF analysis using the hybrid L-edge/L-XRF densitometer

The hybrid L-edge/L-XRF densitometer (HLED) was developed for on-site nuclear fuel assays intended for safeguards purpose. The HLED can simultaneously measure both X-ray photon transmissions and characteristic X-ray emissions, which characterizes the elemental composition of samples of interest to determine the concentration of actinide-bearing materials, such as plutonium and uranium, in a nuclear fuel. In this study, in order to mimic mixture of nuclear materials, we have tested the mixture of surrogate material solution of lead nitrate (Pb(NO₃)₂) and gold(III) chloride trihydrate (HAuCl₃·3H₂O) aqueous solution for the XRF analysis of multi-element solution. In this study, we investigated the characteristics of XRF peaks for multi-element aqueous solution of surrogate materials prior to nuclear material mixture study. Peak ratio between Lα of gold and lead has linear relation of gold concentration. .