X-ray Absorption and Fluorescence Spectrometry

In the 1970s (Pella and von Baeckman 1969 von Baeckman 1971), an instrument was developed for the automatic dilution and L-X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRFA) of U and Pu in spent fuel solutions with a precision and accuracy of about 1%. 

The hybrid K-edge densitometer (HKED) turned out to find quicker applications for safeguards verifications (Ottmar et al. 1986 Ottmar and Eberle 1991) at the input of spent fuel reprocessing plants, as the sample needs neither a dilution nor any treatment before measurement. The technique, considered as an NDA method and described in Sect. 63.3.1, is installed in particular in on-site analytical laboratories and operated by analytical chemists on duty there. Operators have found the instrument so practical and reliable that they use it in their nuclear material accountability program (Brousse et al. 1993). The HKED fluorescence channel is also used for DA of Th or mg-size Pu samples. 

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