Material mixture solution analysis by a hybrid L-edge/L-XRF densitometer

The hybrid L-edge/L-XRF densitometer (HLED) was developed for determining the concentrations of nuclear materials in solutions by combination of two complementary assay techniques, L-edge densitometry (LED) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). In this study, nonradioactive surrogate material mixture solutions (gold as a major analyte and lead as a minor analyte) were evaluated for feasibility for the multi-element nuclear material assay by hybrid analysis of LED and L-XRF, and the major analyte was characterized using L-edge densitometry. The exponential calibration method of material mixture solution for L-XRF is proposed considering the total density with matrix effects. The method was verified through analysis of uncertainties, biases and comparison with International Target Value (ITV). •Portable hybrid L-edge/L-XRF densitometer by using low energy X-ray generator for effective and efficient safeguards activity.•Determination of nuclear material concentrations in material mixture solution by the developed equipment with high precision.•Experiments using a surrogate material such as gold(III) chloride trihydrate (HAuCl3·3H2O) and lead nitrate (Pb(NO3)2) mixed aqueous solution were performed, X-ray absorption data and XRF data were measured simultaneously.