Application of isotope dilution method for mass- and alpha-spectrometric determination of burn-up and uranium, plutonium and transplutonium element content in VVER-440 spent fuel

Abstract

In this report the procedures and the methodology of our versions of alpha- and mass-spectrometric techniques for destructive analysis of VVER spent fuel are discussed. These techniques allow the determination of the content of americium and curium isotopes with relative error 3–5%, that of plutonium isotopes with error ≤1% and of uranium isotopes −0.3–0.4%. They allow one to determine the fuel burn-up using¹⁴⁸Nd monitor with relative error not exceeding 2% at confidence level P=0.95. The investigation was directed at the increase of sensitivity of analysis to ensure that the amount of analysed material should be equivalent to ∼1 mg of irradiated uranium at mean burn-up values. These techniques are based on the isotope dilution method.