Abstract

ISO 7097-1:2004 describes an analytical method for the determination of uranium in pure product material samples such as U metal, UO₂, UO₃, uranyl nitrate hexahydrate, uranium hexafluoride and U₃O₈ from the nuclear fuel cycle. This procedure is sufficiently accurate and precise to be used for nuclear materials accountability. This method can be used directly for the analysis of most uranium and uranium oxide nuclear reactor fuels, either irradiated or unirradiated, and of uranium nitrate product solutions. Fission products equivalent to up to 10 % burn-up of heavy atoms do not interfere, and other elements which could cause interference are not normally present in sufficient quantity to affect the result significantly. The method recommends that an aliquot of sample is weighed and that a mass titration is used, in order to obtain improved precision and accuracy. This does not preclude the use of any alternative technique which could give equivalent performance. As the performance of some steps of the method is critical, the use of some automatic device has some advantages, mainly in the case of routine analysis.