Graphite monochromator for actinide L-line energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis in liquid sample

The concentrations of actinides U, Np, Pu, Am, and Cm are determined by L-line X-ray fluorescence measurement in a hot cell. A specific device was built to focalize only on the energy range from 13 to 15 keV by means of a graphite monochromator. The resulting spectrum is characteristic of the system, which has been developed, and requires the development of specific processing software for quantitative analysis. This paper proposes a new approach of modeling and correction of matrix effects for these specific spectra. This correction requires a precise chemical description of the media. Several results were compared with other analytical techniques and very good agreement was found. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.