Spectrophotometric Determination of Hexavalent Plutonium

The method is calibrated against Pu standard solutions treated in the same way than the unknown samples. 

Higher reproducibilities and accuracies of 0.06-0.1% were obtained (Nikitina et al. 2007) with a two-channel photometer for the characterization of Pu, Pu or Pu spikes or their mixtures. The two channels are centered on the Pu(VI) absorption peak at 831nm and in a region of low absorbance at 720 nm. The ratio of the light intensities in the two channels is taken as a measure of the plutonium light absorption. The technique was proposed for the determination of U, Pu, and fission products such as Nd and Rh in dissolver solutions (Stepanov et al. 2002) with expected reproducibilities of 0.1 to 0.25%. LSD spikes containing around 50 mg of 20% enriched uranium and 2 mg of plutonium have been verified with the same technique and precision. With such a capability, the technique would qualify as a bias defect detection method. 

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