During the dismantling of nuclear facilities, a large quantity of radioactive concrete is generated and chelating agents are required for the decontamination process. However, disposing of environmentally persistent chelated wastes without eliminating the chelating agents might increase the rate of radionuclide migration. This paper reports a rapid and straightforward ion chromatography method for the quantification of citric acid (CA), a commonly used chelating agent. The findings demonstrate acceptable recovery yields, linearities, and reproducibilities of the simulated samples, confirming the validity of the proposed method. The selectivity of the proposed method was confirmed by effectively separating CA from gluconic acid, a common constituent in concretes. The limits of detection and quantification of the method were 0.679 and 2.059 mg·L−1, respectively, while the recovery yield, indicative of the consistency between theoretical and experimental concentrations, was 85%. The method was also employed for the quantification of CA in a real concrete sample. These results highlight the potential of this approach for CA detection in radioactive concrete waste, as well as in other types of nuclear wastes.

1. Introduction
2. Experimental
    2.1 Chemicals
    2.2 Instruments
    2.3 Sample Preparation
3. Results and Discussion
4. Conclusion
Conflict of Interest
Acknowledgements
REFERENCES

• Hyejin Cho(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 111, Daedeok-daero 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34057, Republic of Korea) Corresponding author
• Jai Il Park(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 111, Daedeok-daero 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34057, Republic of Korea) Corresponding author
• Tae-Hong Park(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 111, Daedeok-daero 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34057, Republic of Korea)
• Hye-Ryun Cho(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 111, Daedeok-daero 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34057, Republic of Korea)