Californium purification and electrodeposition

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.

Determination of ultra-low level 129I in vegetation using pyrolysis for iodine separation and accelerator mass spectrometry measurements

“…A signicant amount of iodine has been observed in the outlet end of the furnace tube when a long outlet end was applied. 31 An extra heating wire wrapped around the outlet part of the furnace tube has been proposed to solve this problem. 26,29 The approach of shortening the outlet end of the furnace tube and maintaining a high temperature in the second zone of the furnace from the beginning of the combustion until the end is proposed in this work, which is simple and easy to operate.…”

“…Our 125 I tracer experiment has shown that only a small fraction of iodine (<2%) was vaporized from the samples and collected in the trap solution below 400 C. A combustion temperature range of 800-1000 C has been used for the vaporization of iodine from solid samples (soil, sediment, and vegetation). [17][18][19]22,[26][27][28][29][30][31] It has been reported that the remarkable releases of iodine from solid samples do not occur before 700 C, and a temperature of more than 800 C does not further increase the releases of iodine from solid samples. 32 Practically, 800 C was oen applied for the combustion of samples and vaporization of iodine.…”

“…NaOH, KOH, or tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide), which is further puried and converted to a suitable target for the measurement of 129 I. [17][18][19][26][27][28][29][30][31] Reductive reagents such as NaHSO 3 or Na 2 SO 3 at different concentrations (0.02-0.06 M) are oen added to the trap solution to better absorb the released iodine in the solution. [17][18][19]26,29,30 Trap solution without a reductant has also been used.…”

“…alkaline ashing following by water leaching, 16,19,20 acid digestion [23][24][25] and pyrolysis (combustion). [26][27][28][29][30][31] Based on the lower volatility of iodine in alkaline media, biological samples are rst mixed with alkaline solution (NaOH/KOH or Na 2 CO 3 ) and evaporated to dryness, which is then ashed at 550-650 C to decompose organic substance, and iodine converted to inorganic form during ashing is then leached using water or sulte solution. 19,20 Alkaline ashing is easy to operate, but very tedious, the whole procedure takes a few days.…”

Electrodeposition method development for Californium Rare Isotope Breeder Upgrade (CARIBU) Source

“…The largest electrodeposition of 252 Cf ever produced at the REDC included 6.3 ± 0.5 GBq (1.7 ± 0.1 Ci) 252 Cf [3], [4], but the source was thicker than desired for the application, which resulted in reduced overall fission fragment yield. This is believed to originate from the electrodeposition procedure, in which the organic substituents from the ammonium acetate electrolyte solution are deposited along with 252 Cf.…”