A chromatography chemistry for purifying Pa from U-Nb metal alloys

Engel, John; Denton, Joanna S.; LaMont, Stephen P.; Buettner, Jacob E.; Chen, Christine Y.; Steiner, R. E.; Kayzar-Boggs, Theresa M.

doi:10.1007/s10967-022-08747-7

Cited by 1 publication

(3 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The solids were at first gray in color, but eventually turned white after several hours of refluxing (see Fig. 10 and [ 30 ]) …”

Section: Methods Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Speculating that the white solids observed during initial sample dissolution were a precipitated Nb compound, LANL exploited the formation of these precipitates as a separation mechanism itself. Elemental concentration and gamma spectroscopy measurements of the solids confirmed that the precipitates contained ~ 98% of the total Nb load and < 1% of the loaded Pa [ 30 ]. Therefore, physical removal of the solids would effectively remove the vast majority of the Nb with minimal Pa loss.…”

Section: Methods Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While further work to improve Pa recovery with this modified procedure is needed, the amount of purified Pa produced from this method was sufficient for high-precision analysis by mass spectrometry. We refer the reader to published follow-up research to optimize this separation chemistry in Engel et al (2023) [ 30 ].…”

Section: Methods Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Separation of protactinium from uranium-niobium alloys for 231Pa–235U radiochronometry in nuclear forensic investigations

Chen

Higginson

Kayzar-Boggs

et al. 2023

J Radioanal Nucl Chem

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The isolation and purification of protactinium from uranium materials is essential for 231 Pa– 235 U radiochronometry, but separating Pa from uranium-niobium alloys, a common material in the nuclear fuel cycle, is challenging due to the chemical similarity of Pa and Nb. Here we present three resin chromatography separation techniques for isolating Pa from U and Nb which were independently developed by three different laboratories through ad hoc adaptations of standard operating procedures. Our results underscore the need for and value of purification methods suitable for a diversity of uranium-based materials to ensure the operational readiness of nuclear forensics laboratories. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10967-023-08928-y.

show abstract

“…The solids were at first gray in color, but eventually turned white after several hours of refluxing (see Fig. 10 and [ 30 ]) …”

Section: Methods Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methods Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%