Quantification of elements in spent nuclear fuel using intrinsic radioactivity for sample excitation and chemometric data processing

Abstract

Quantitative analysis of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is a very challenging task. High radioactivity, complex chemical composition and personnel safety requirements severely limit the number of analytical tools suitable for this problem. There is an urgent need for the methods that would provide for remote on-line quantification of elements in spent nuclear fuel and its reprocessing technological solutions. Here we propose a novel approach based on the registration of X-ray fluorescence radiation from SNF samples induced by fission products radioactivity. In this case the X-ray excitation conditions will obviously vary from sample to sample; moreover the resulting spectra will be a complex superposition of numerous signals from soft gamma emitters and X-ray fluorescence of various nature. These complex spectra can be effectively treated with chemometric data processing for quantification of particular elements. We have demonstrated the validity of this approach for direct analysis of U, Zr and Mo in SNF raffinate.

Keywords: Chemometrics; Elemental analysis; Spent nuclear fuel; X-ray fluorescence.