Alpha emitters in nuclear waste. Extension of the procedure for low and medium level activity waste

The present paper describes a separative method for the determination of U, Pu, Am, Np, Th and Cm as alpha emitters and 3H, Sr, and Ni as beta emitters, when present in aqueous samples of nuclear waste, by using chromatographic separations, liquid scintillation counting and alpha spectrometry. The main separation is performed in one step by coprecipitation of the alpha emitters with yttrium hydroxide at pH = 9-10 after distillation of tritium until dryness and dissolution of the residue in 2M HCI. Actinides are precipitated while strontium and nickel remain in supernatant. Nickel is separated by precipitation with dimetyglioxime in the supernatant and measured by LSC. Strontium is separated by chromatography after conditioning the supernatant (which also contained nickel) and measured by LSC. The actinides fraction is re dissolved in nitric acid and percolated through three chromatographic columns (TEVA, U-TEVA and TRU-SPEC) conditioning the different fractions for measuring by alpha spectrometry. The spectra of the different fractions are presented together with the detection limits and the recoveries obtained on spiked samples. (author)