Determination of uranium in liquid and solid samples by radioisotope excited XPR analysis using the ULα/ULγ ratio for matrix correction

A method for the exact determination of uranium in liquid and solid samples containing various main elements with Z≤29 is described. The method is based on simultaneous measurements of the excited LX fluorescent energies of uranium and the backscattered energies of the iodine target used for excitation. UL_α/UL_γ and (UL_υ/IK_αincoh)/U% peak intensities were found to be linearly dependent in samples of different chemical composition. Twenty eight liquid and solid samples of various matrices containing uranium in the range 0.3–30% were determined and a calibration line based on these measurements was obtained. Several samples containing different U concentrations were checked by this method and the average deviation of the calculated results from the known content is ±12.5%. The X-rays were excited using a 10 mCi²⁴¹Am/I source-target assembly and measured with 25 mm² Si(Li) detector.