Determination of trace elements of corrosion products in the primary circuit of nuclear reactors after preconcentration

Because of the high temperature and pressure the primary circuits of water cooled nuclear reactors may become contaminated with corrosion products and radionuclides as well as in case of PWRs during their normal operation. On ly a negligible part of the dissolved structural materials is radioactive t herefore its determination by radioanalytical methods is not possible. Moni toring of the corrosion processes can be made by the determination of the c oncentration of the dissolved structural elements. However, the concentrati on of these elements is in the concentration range of ng/dm(3) -mu g/dm(3) therefore its direct determination cannot be made even by the most sensitiv e atom spectroscopic method or the uncertainty of the results is too high. The preconcentration of the corrosion products may solve this problem. A pr econcentration method has been elaborated using an ion-chromatographic colu mn. The determination of the dissolved structural materials in the primary circuits of water cooled nuclear reactors by ICP can be made with appropria te accuracy after preconcentration.