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Direct uranium enrichment assay in gaseous uranium hexafluoride with laser induced breakdown spectroscopy

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Abstract

A set of eleven U atomic emission lines, between 421.099 and 421.460 nm, were characterized for direct enrichment assay of gaseous UF6 samples with laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Several iterative, multivariate nonlinear spectral-fitting algorithms were evaluated for their efficacies to extract the enrichment information from the measured LIBS spectra. Wavelength-dependent weight factors, which take into consideration of the spectral-line position in the fitting model, the determined isotopic ratio, and the isotopic shift of the emission line, are essential for the spectral-fitting model to function adequately. The analytical accuracies and precision were typically within 0.5% in absolute [235U/(235U + 238U)] ratios.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Office of Research and Development of the U.S. Department of Energy under contract numbers DE-AC02-05CH11231 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and DE-AC05-00OR22725 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    George C.-Y. Chan, Xianglei Mao & Richard E. Russo

  2. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37830, USA

    Leigh R. Martin & Lee D. Trowbridge

  3. Applied Spectra, 950 Riverside Pkwy Suite 90, West Sacramento, CA, 95605, USA

    Richard E. Russo

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  1. George C.-Y. Chan
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Correspondence to George C.-Y. Chan.

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Chan, G.CY., Mao, X., Martin, L.R. et al. Direct uranium enrichment assay in gaseous uranium hexafluoride with laser induced breakdown spectroscopy. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 331, 1409–1421 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-022-08215-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-022-08215-2

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