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A comparative study using liquid scintillation counting to determine 63Ni in low and intermediate level radioactive waste

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Abstract

A comparative study using liquid scintillation counting was performed to measure 63Ni in low and intermediate level radioactive waste. Three dimethylglyoxime (DMG)-based radiochemical procedures (solvent extraction, precipitation, extraction chromatography) were investigated, the solvent extraction method being considered as the reference method. Theoretical speciation calculations enabled to better understand the chemical reactions involved in the three protocols and to optimize them. In comparison to the method based on DMG precipitation, the method based on extraction chromatography allowed to achieve the best results in one single step in term of recovery yield and accuracy for various samples.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the organizing committees of 17th RadChem and ERA12 conferences for allowing the oral presentations of this work. They also thank Thomas Grangeon and Julien Roger for the measurements by gamma spectrometry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CEA Saclay, DEN/DANS/DPC/SEARS/LASE, F-91191, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

    Céline Gautier, Christèle Colin & Cécile Garcia

Authors
  1. Céline Gautier
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  2. Christèle Colin
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  3. Cécile Garcia
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Céline Gautier.

Additional information

Cécile Garcia its on leave for AREVA, Demantelement et Services/MSIS Assistance, 91196 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

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Gautier, C., Colin, C. & Garcia, C. A comparative study using liquid scintillation counting to determine 63Ni in low and intermediate level radioactive waste. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 308, 261–270 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-4301-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-015-4301-4

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