Ay. Lyul et Gm. Kolesov, DETERMINATION OF THE URANIUM CONTENT AND ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION OF HOT PARTICLES AFTER THE CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT, Journal of analytical chemistry, 50(11), 1995, pp. 1098-1101
The uranium content and isotopic composition of hot particles from the
Chernobyl nuclear power plant region were determined by instrumental
neutron-activation analysis. The uranium content of the particles rang
ed from fractions of a percent to several tens of percents, and the is
otopic composition corresponded to the irradiated nuclear fuel. Two pa
rticles with anomalously high enrichment in U-235 were found. A simpli
fied but reasonably accurate and rapid method for evaluating the U-235
content of nuclear fuel without using a standard was suggested on the
basis of the relationship found between the U-235 content of uranium
contained in the hot particles and the ratio of induced radioactivity
Np-239(U-238)/Mo-99(U-235).