Potentiometric determination of uranium in the presence of plutonium in H2SO4 medium

The potentiometric determination of uranium is widely carried out in phosphoric acid medium to suppress the interferences of plutonium by complexation. Owing to the complexity of the recycling plutonium from the phosphate based waste involving manifold stages of separation, a method has been proposed in the present paper which does not use phosphoric acid. Uranium and plutonium are reduced to U/IV/ and Pu/III/ in 1M H₂SO₄ by Ti/III/, and NaNO₂ is chosen to selectively oxidize Pu/III/ and the excess of Ti/III/. The unreacted NaNO₂ is destroyed by sulphamic acid and excess Fe/III/ is added following dilution. The equivalent amount of Fe/II/ thus liberated is titrated against standard K₂Cr₂O₇. R.S.D. obtained for the determination of uranium /1–2 mg/ is 0.3% with plutonium being present upto 4.0 mg.