Quantification of thorium and uranium in real process streams of Mayak radiochemical plant using potentiometric multisensor array

Abstract

The task of real time chemical composition control of radiochemical process streams is a great challenge to analytical chemistry due to very complex composition of the media and high radioactivity. Most of the analytical methods employed at the moment assume tedious and time-consuming steps of sampling, sample pretreatment and sophisticated analysis. In this study we have developed potentiometric multisensor system which is capable of fast and simple direct quantification of U and Th in real process streams of radiochemical plant with relative errors around 10%. This appears to be a reasonable precision sufficient for technological monitoring purposes and gives a good promise for the development of novel approach to radiochemical analytics.