Water that feeds the high pressure steam generators of a nuclear power station is of the highest purity, with a maximum dissolved solids concentration of 0.5μg/l. Maintaining the
feed water quality to the steam generators is of paramount importance since they have to last the life of the station. This means a lot of analytical work for power station chemists like
Jon Clack, who is responsible for the analytical laboratory at British Energy’s Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station. “We use a Dionex Ion Chromatograph to analyse for trace contaminants at μg/l and even ng/l levels,” says Jon.“When you are working at this level you have make up standards for calibration using water which is even purer than that in the samples you are analysing, so we use an ELGA LabWater PURELAB Ultra Ionic.”