Safeguards Analytical Laboratory

Chemical Analysis Unit - Plutonium Laboratory

The Plutonium Laboratory performs the initial treatment of all Pu bearing product samples. Depending on the nature of the samples and the requested analysis type, they are analyzed for their Plutonium and Uranium assay, prepared for an isotopic analysis or conditioned for a radiometric measurement or an impurity analysis. For routine purposes, the nuclear materials, which can be either Pu, U or mixed oxides are usually converted into a nitrate form by dissolution and analyzed by one of the following techniques:

Davies and Gray Potentiometric Titration for U assay
Mac Donald and Savage Potentiometric Titration for Pu assay
Controlled Potential Coulometry for Pu assay
Isotopic Dilution techniques for mg amounts of U and Pu
"yellow cake"


Controlled potential coulometer head	Controlled potential coulometer elektronik

For an accurate isotopic analysis which is performed by either Mass Spectrometry, Gamma Spectrometry or Alpha Spectrometry at SAL it is essential that the different actinides, which are present in the nuclear materials, are separated from each other. This is done by :

Column Extraction Reversed Phase Chromatography with TOPO

Beside the analysis of safeguards verification samples, the staff of the Pu Lab develops in cooperation with experts from all over the world, new analysis types which will be adopted in the future. They may either replace existing methods at SAL or they will be applied at On-site laboratories which are presently under construction. These techniques are :

Hybrid K-edge/ K-XRF Densitometry for U and Pu assay in spent fuel solutions
Spectrophotometry for assay of small quantities of Pu in waste solutions
Laser Fluorimetry for the determination of Np in Pu samples