PRECISION OF THE CARRIER DISTILLATION SPECTRO-CHEMICAL DETERMINATION OF TRACE ELEMENTS IN URANIUM

samples also showed the internal standard method to be as accurate as a commonly used colorimetric method and less biased than two Oak Ridge spectrochemical methods. In the course of this investigation a comparison was made of the results obtained for various elements as determined by the Oak Ridge carrier-distiilation method and two Los Alamos carrier-distillation methods, with and without cobalt. Analyses of variance were used to detect significant differences when analyzing laboratory exchange samples for aluminum, silicon, and manganese. In the presence of 250 ppm cobalt the results for manganese wcre approximately 40 percent lower than in the absence of cobalt. No significant difference among the three methods was found for silicon but it was found that the results for aluminum obtained at Oak Ridge were significantly lower than for either Los Alamos method. (auth)