Simultaneous determination of Cs and Sr in the high level waste by ion-chromatography

A method based on ion-chromatography has been developed for determination of Cs and Sr in high level waste (HLW) without matrix separation. The acidity of HLW (3 M HNO3) was decreased to 0.01 M by addition of NaOH. Chromatographic separation of Cs+ and Sr++ in presence of bulk Na+ has achieved using methane sulphonic acid as mobile phase in isocratic and gradient mode. The calibration plot was linear for the concentration range of 0.5–12 mg/L for Cs and 0.025–6 mg/L for Sr with regression coefficients close to 1. RSD obtained for Cs and Sr was 1 and 5 % respectively. Detection limit calculated as 3(S/N) was found to be 20 μg/L for Cs and 30 μg/L for Sr. The standard addition procedure was used to validate the developed method. The samples received from PREFRE, Tarapur and WIP, BARC were analyzed by the new method and the results are presented.