DETERMINATION OF TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS IN NUCLEAR-POWER-PLANT WASTES

During the operation of nuclear reactors, various alpha-emitting isoto pes and activation products, coming from the surface contamination of fuel elements or from the fuel itself due to leaking through possible cracks or damage of the enclosure, may appear in nuclear power plant w astes. It is known that in the case of uranium-based fuel elements, is otopes of uranium, neptunium and plutonium constitute the greater part , while those of americium and curium the smaller part of the alpha-em itting isotopes occurring in the wastes, These also appear in the rege neration wastes of primary coolant purifiers in concentrations dependi ng on their amounts originally present and their solubilities, the lat ter being determined by the chemical nature of the radionuclides. Seve ral papers have been published on the analysis of radioactive nuclear power plant wastes for transuranium elements, In these articles differ ent individual techniques are described for measuring alpha-emitting r adionuclides used at various nuclear reactors.(1-3) It is quite unders tandable that different analytical procedures are needed in the case o f different types of reactors for the selective detection of or-emitte rs. In this paper a new technique is described in detail, which was de veloped for the analysis of alpha-emitting radionuclides in low-activi ty liquid wastes of VVER-440 type (PWR) reactors, The main feature of the procedure is its suitability for treating solutions saturated with respect to boric acid and also containing several organic and inorgan ic compounds.