Fermium purification using TEVA™ resin extraction chromatography

C. E. Porter, F. D. Riley, R. D. Vandergrift, L. K. Felker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Radiochemical Engineering Development Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory processes irradiated targets to recover the transplutonium actinides for research and industrial users. In a typical processing campaign, dekagram quantities of curium are recovered for recycle into targets for subsequent irradiation and processing; decigram quantities of californium are recovered for fabrication into neutron sources; and milligram quantities of einsteinium and berkelium as well as picogram quantities of fermium are recovered for distribution to the research community. The transcurium actinides are separated in a series of chromatographic elutions using a cation-exchange resin and ammonium α-hydroxyisobutyrate as the eluant The fermium fraction from these final purification runs still contains significant amounts of rare earth fission products, such as yttrium, dysprosium, and holmium. In the most recent campaign, a process using a TEVA™ resin extraction chromatography column was developed and tested to determine its effectiveness in providing a fermium product free of rare earth fission products. Gamma spectroscopy indicated that dysprosium and holmium were reduced to levels less than minimum detectable limits and that only 0.07 pg of 91Y remained in the final fermium product, which contained 0.5 pg of 257Fm. An overall decontamination factor of ∼ 103 was achieved for fission product removal.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)83-92
Number of pages10
JournalSeparation Science and Technology (Philadelphia)
Volume32
Issue number1-4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1997

Funding

This research is sponsore--y the Ofice of Energy Researc.., U.S. Department of Energy, under contract DE-AC05-840R2 I400 with Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc. The authors wish to acknowledge the helpful assistance of the Chemical and Analytical Sciences Division at ORNL in the analysis of the various product fractions obtained in these separation studies, and Marsha Savage for editorial assistance in the preparation of the manuscript.

FundersFunder number
U.S. Department of EnergyDE-AC05-840R2 I400

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