Chelating agents, such as EDTA, NTA, and citric acid, can form radionuclide-chelate complexes that may enhance the migration of radionuclides from disposal sites. Therefore, the contents of these chelators in radioactive wastes are determined for the secured disposal. In this study, a rapid automated method using ion chromatography (IC) is described for analysis of chelating agents. The method enables direct use of a sample solution for the measurement unlike colorimetric or enzymatic methods. In these cases, lots of chemicals are consumed to convert the chelating agents to be UV-Vis-active compounds during the pretreatment process and finally, absorbance or transmittance are measured at specific wavelength using UV-Vis spectrophotometer. In particular, the enzymatic method for determination of citric acid, because of its strong dependence on experimental conditions including sample types and chemical reagents may produce inconsistent results. The automated system using IC allows a laboratory to directly measure the amount of citric acid while reducing total analysis time and increasing efficiency. In addition, this method is capable of detecting a trace amount of citric acid, thereby lowering LOD and LOQ values.

• Hyejin Cho(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 111, Daedeok-daero 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon) Corresponding author
• Jail Park(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 111, Daedeok-daero 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon)