An. Dubey et al., Simultaneous determination of uranium and plutonium at trace levels in process streams using Arsenazo III by derivative spectrophotometry, J RAD NUCL, 240(3), 1999, pp. 741-746
A derivative spectrophotometric method has been developed for the simultane
ous determination of uranium and plutonium at trace levels in various proce
ss streams in 3M HNO3 medium using Arsenazo III. The method was developed w
ith the objective of measuring both uranium and plutonium in the: same aliq
uot in fairly high burn-up fuels. The first derivative absorbances of the u
ranium and plutonium Arsenate III complexes. at 632 nm and 606.5 nm, respec
tively, were used for their quantification. Mixed aliquots of uranium (20-2
8 mu g/ml) and plutonium (0.5-1.5 mu g/ml) with U/Pu ratio varying From 25
to 40 were analysed using this technique. A relative error of about 5% was
obtained for uranium and plutonium The method is simple, fast and does not
require separation of uranium and plutonium The effect of presence of many
fission products, corrosion products and complexing anions on determination
of uranium and plutonium was also studied.