Quantitative determination of UO2 and ThO2 in powdery mixtures by infrared spectrometry

Infrared spectra of powdery mixtures of UO2 and ThO2 were quantitatively evaluated with a computer. The computer program was tested using the spectra of CaSO4+BaSO4 mixture. Preliminary results are given and a possible use of this method for analyzing the mixtures of UO2 with PuO2 is suggested. The precision of about 1% and accuracy of 3% were reached in the case of sulphate mixtures for the spectral region of deformation vibrations whereas somewhat poorer values, as expectable, 3% for precision and 5% for accuracy were obtained for the case spectrally similar to the mixture of uranium and thorium dioxides. (T.G.)