Determination of Ru, Rh, Pd, Te, Mo and Zr in spent pressurized water reactor fuels by ion exchange and extraction chromatographic separations and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometric analysis Original Research Article

A study has been carried out on the quantitative analysis of Ru, Rh, Pd, Te, Mo and Zr, which are main components of undissolved materials dispersed in nitric acid dissolver solutions of spent pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuels, using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The dissolution of the insoluble residues filtrated from the dissolver solutions by acid digestion bomb technique and the separation of Ru, Rh, Pd, Te, Mo and Zr from U and transuranous elements in the filtrate by ion exchange, and di(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (HDEHP) extraction chromatography were discussed in detail. The applicability and versatility of the proposed separation procedure combined with ICP-AES analysis were evaluated by chemically characterizing the spent PWR fuels with burnups from 36,000 to 39,000 MWd/MtU.