The determination of trace impurities in uranium by nuclear analytical methods

Nuclear-grade uranium dioxides is utilized in nuclear fuel production and it must satisfy stringent requirements as to purity. Many of these impurities are suitable for determination by neutron activation analysis. This technique has extremely good sensitivity for most of the impurity elements that are of interest in high-purity uranium dioxide. This study formed part of a project to determine the impurity elements in high-purity uranium dioxide that was intended as a reference standard for spark-source mass spectrography. A radiochemical neutron-activation method was developed for the determination of chromium, iron, cobalt and nickel in the uranium sample