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Californium purification and electrodeposition

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Abstract

The staff at the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center, located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, produced a 6.3 ± 0.4 GBq (1.7 ± 0.1 Ci) 252Cf source for the Californium Rare Isotope Breeder Upgrade (CARIBU) project at Argonne National Laboratory’s Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System. The source was produced by electrodeposition of a 252Cf sample onto a stainless steel substrate, which required material free from excess mass for efficient deposition. The resulting deposition was the largest reported 252Cf electrodeposition source ever produced. Several different chromatographic purification methods were investigated to determine which would be most effective for final purification of the feed material used for the CARIBU source. The separation of lanthanides from the Cf was of special concern. The separation, using 145Sm, 153Gd, and 249Cf as tracers, was investigated using BioRad AG 50X8 in α-hydroxyisobutyric acid, Eichrom LN resin in both HNO3 and HCl, and Eichrom TEVA resin in NH4SCN. The TEVA NH4SCN system was found to completely separate 145Sm and 153Gd from 249Cf and was adopted into the purification process used in purifying the 252Cf.

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Acknowledgments

This research is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics, Isotope Development and Production for Research and Applications Program. ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE AC05-00OR22725. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC0500OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for the United States Government purposes.

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Correspondence to Jonathan D. Burns.

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Burns, J.D., Van Cleve, S.M., Smith, E.H. et al. Californium purification and electrodeposition. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 305, 109–116 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-014-3815-5

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