RADIOCHEMICAL DETERMINATION OF URANIUM AND TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS IN PROCESS SOLUTIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLES

A previous procedure for the separation and determination of uranium and the transuranium elements using barium sulfate has been improved greatly and applied to practical problems. By adding a more dilute barium solution dropwise to the sample solution at its boiling point, precipitation of the elements being carried has been increased to a remarkable 99.995%, or a decontamination factor of 2×104 in a single precipitation. Ten pure solutions taken through the entire procedure including fusion, separation, and determination gave a relative standard deviation of 0.9%. The same changes also increased the permissible level of the worst interfering elements to about 1 mg, with most of the elements in the periodic table having been tested. The procedure has been applied to many kinds of process solutions and environmental samples with excellent sensitivity, precision, and reliability. The radiochemical purity of all fractions is demonstrated by high-resolution alpha spectrometry. In addition, a procedure for the precise determination of gross alpha activity is presented and its use in complying with the summation rule for mixtures required by federal regulations is demonstrated. © 1969, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.