Non-destructive determination of uranium and plutonium in annular (U, Pu)O2 mixed oxide sintered pellets by wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry

A non-destructive wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF) spectrometric method for direct determination of uranium and plutonium in as fabricated annular sintered (U, Pu)O2 mixed oxide (MOX) pellets avoiding the traditional cumbersome sample preparation involving dissolution or comminution–pelletization of sample has been developed. Sintered (U, Pu)O2 MOX pellets were directly analyzed using this method by taking the sample pellets inside an indigenously developed special collet which was loaded in the spectrometer for WDXRF measurements. The developed methodology has the utility for regular analysis of samples in fuel fabrication facilities. The relative standard deviation of the analytical results for U and Pu using WDXRF were found to be better than ± 0.13% and ± 0.31% (n = 10) respectively and equivalent plutonium content obtained are in close agreement with the standard titrimetric methods.