Determinations of uranium at trace and subtrace levels in organic substances by wet ashing-Arsenazo III method

Abstract

A method was developed for the determination of trace and subtrace amounts of uranium in organic substances used during the industrial process of nuclear fuel production. The method is based on decomposing 50 g of the sample by wet ashing with 25 g conc. sulfuric acid. The residue from the ashing process was ignited at 525 °C to remove all carbonaceous materials. The residue was boiled with 10 ml of 1∶1 nitric acid. The resulting solutions was analyzed for uranium concentration using a modification of the arsenazo III method which allows for uranium determination after separating it by TBP extraction from all the interfering elements. The proposed method proved to be sensitive (detection limit: 15 ppb). The relative standard deviation of the method for a sample containing 200 ppb uranium is 5%. The dynamic range of the method is wide, since the method is applicable. for trace and subtrace levels of uranium in organic substances.