Abstract
The study and development of present and future processes for the treatment/recycling of spent nuclear fuels require many steps, from its design in the laboratory through its setting up at industrial scale. In all of these steps, analysis and instrumentation are key points. Such developments are increasingly carried out by the CEA on milli/microfluidic devices, requiring secure flow management, adapted materials as well as low sample volumes, both for scientific reasons (small-scale studies, control of phenomena, etc.) and with a view to costs, risks, and waste minimization and. In this context, we report the use of an optofluidic chip for the determination of actinides using UV-Visible spectroscopy in sealed containers (glove boxes, etc.). Starting from a Photonic Lab-on-a-Chip (PhLoC) concept, based on a multiple path spectrophotometric configuration, a setup suitable for the characterization of metals in aqueous solution has been designed and developed for its use in hostile environments. In this setup, the PhloC is combined with an automatic multisyringe flow system allowing for quantification with a few microliters of liquid solution. After an optimization test on neodymium solutions, the setup has been implemented in a radioactive environment to evaluate its performance on a mixture of two uranium valences (IV and VI) in concentrated nitric medium. The performances obtained (detection limits, deconvolution of mixture spectra, etc.) have demonstrated the relevance of this type of setup for measurements in hostile and aggressive environments.