Author: C. S. MacDougall

Publisher:

Published: 1973

Total Pages: 12

ISBN-13:

A reliable gravimetric method for determining carbon and hydrogen was adapted for analyses of irradiated fuels and claddings in a hot cell. The sample was burned in oxygen at 1000°C in a furnace system within the hot cell to oxidize hydrogen to water and carbon to carbon dioxide. The evolved gases were swept through heated tubing into magnesium perchlorate to trap the water and into Ascarite to trap the carbon dioxide, and the traps were subsequently weighted. The bias in measuring either carbon or hydrogen was consistently -2.5%, and the relative standard deviations were 4.4% in measuring hydrogen and 3.0% in measuring carbon. The same furnace system was used to determine tritium in a separate protion of the sample. This portion was reacted with moist oxygen at 1000°C, and the tritiated water was collected in a spiral trap cooled to -80°C. This trap was then heated to 200°C, and the tritiated water was swept by argon into a volumetric flask containing distilled water. An aliquot of the water was pipetted into a scintillation vial filled with Aquasol and the mixture was counted. The relative standard deviation of this method was +̲10% for measuring 0.1 [mu]g of tirtium, and the bias was -4%.