The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

A novel approach for the rapid decomposition of Actinide resin and its application to measurement of uranium and plutonium in natural waters

A novel approach for the rapid decomposition of Actinide resin and its application to measurement of uranium and plutonium in natural waters
A novel approach for the rapid decomposition of Actinide resin and its application to measurement of uranium and plutonium in natural waters
A rapid and robust procedure is described for the decomposition of Actinide™ resin permitting the routine application of this resin as a preconcentrator. Although the classical Fe(OH)3 precipitation is effective in scavenging actinides, the need for careful handling to recover the sticky precipitate makes the new method much more attractive. The known difficulty of decomposing Actinide™ resin, which is required prior to the subsequent separation of adsorbed actinides, is innovatively overcome by using a borate fusion attack. This procedure effectively solves the normally encountered problem by safely and speedily decomposing the resin in minutes rather than hours. The alternative and apparently simpler technique of direct ashing of the Actinide™ resin is not used since it leads to a residue that is not readily leachable. The new technique has been incorporated into a procedure for the isolation of Pu and U from natural water samples and their subsequent quantification by alpha spectrometry. The efficiency of loading of the elements onto Actinide™ resin has been tested using both batch and column-based approaches. The integrated method involving Actinide™ resin preconcentration, borate fusion, anion and UTEVA chromatography and electrodeposition provides limits of detection of 0.001 Bq L?1 and chemical recoveries in excess of 80% from groundwater and seawater samples as large as 5 L. Comparative data, presented for the analysis of independently analysed river, borehole and surface run-off waters using both the described procedure and other competing techniques, show very good agreement.
actinides, Actinide™ resin, borate fusion, alpha spectrometry, natural waters, plutonium, uranium
0003-2670
111-118
Croudace, I.W.
24deb068-d096-485e-8a23-a32b7a68afaf
Warwick, P.E.
f2675d83-eee2-40c5-b53d-fbe437f401ef
Greenwood, R.C.
9a990c07-9a0b-422e-b6a3-cb88acf56bc3
Croudace, I.W.
24deb068-d096-485e-8a23-a32b7a68afaf
Warwick, P.E.
f2675d83-eee2-40c5-b53d-fbe437f401ef
Greenwood, R.C.
9a990c07-9a0b-422e-b6a3-cb88acf56bc3

Croudace, I.W., Warwick, P.E. and Greenwood, R.C. (2006) A novel approach for the rapid decomposition of Actinide resin and its application to measurement of uranium and plutonium in natural waters. Analytica Chimica Acta, 577 (1), 111-118. (doi:10.1016/j.aca.2006.06.012).

Record type: Article

Abstract

A rapid and robust procedure is described for the decomposition of Actinide™ resin permitting the routine application of this resin as a preconcentrator. Although the classical Fe(OH)3 precipitation is effective in scavenging actinides, the need for careful handling to recover the sticky precipitate makes the new method much more attractive. The known difficulty of decomposing Actinide™ resin, which is required prior to the subsequent separation of adsorbed actinides, is innovatively overcome by using a borate fusion attack. This procedure effectively solves the normally encountered problem by safely and speedily decomposing the resin in minutes rather than hours. The alternative and apparently simpler technique of direct ashing of the Actinide™ resin is not used since it leads to a residue that is not readily leachable. The new technique has been incorporated into a procedure for the isolation of Pu and U from natural water samples and their subsequent quantification by alpha spectrometry. The efficiency of loading of the elements onto Actinide™ resin has been tested using both batch and column-based approaches. The integrated method involving Actinide™ resin preconcentration, borate fusion, anion and UTEVA chromatography and electrodeposition provides limits of detection of 0.001 Bq L?1 and chemical recoveries in excess of 80% from groundwater and seawater samples as large as 5 L. Comparative data, presented for the analysis of independently analysed river, borehole and surface run-off waters using both the described procedure and other competing techniques, show very good agreement.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 2006
Keywords: actinides, Actinide™ resin, borate fusion, alpha spectrometry, natural waters, plutonium, uranium

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 42873
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/42873
ISSN: 0003-2670
PURE UUID: 44e52cb0-27e6-4c41-ae9b-caaa4bfd0d6d
ORCID for P.E. Warwick: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-8774-5125

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 12 Dec 2006
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 02:49

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: I.W. Croudace
Author: P.E. Warwick ORCID iD
Author: R.C. Greenwood

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×