Progress in chemical treatment of LEU targets by the modified Cintichem process
- Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States)
- Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
Presented here are recent experimental results on tests of a modified Cintichem process for producing {sup 99}Mo from low enriched uranium (LEU). Studies were focused in three areas: (1) testing the effects on {sup 99}Mo recovery and purity of dissolving LEU foil in nitric acid alone, rather than in the sulfuric/nitric acid mixture currently used, (2) measuring decontamination factors for radionuclide impurities in each purification step, and (3) testing the effects on processing of adding barrier materials to the LEU metal-foil target. The experimental results show that switching from dissolving the target in the sulfuric/nitric mixture to using nitric acid alone should cause no significant difference in {sup 99}Mo product yield or purity. Further, the results show that overall decontamination factors for gamma emitters in the LEU-target processing are high enough to meet the purity requirements for the {sup 99}Mo product. The results also show that the selected barrier materials, Cu, Fe, and Ni, do not interfere with {sup 99}Mo recovery and can be removed during chemical processing of the LEU target.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 425275
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/CMT/CP-91319; ANL/CMT/VU-91319; CONF-9610205-8; ON: DE97000397; TRN: 97:004356
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 19. international meeting on reduced enrichment for research and test reactors (RERTR), Seoul (Korea, Republic of), 7-10 Oct 1996; Other Information: PBD: [1996]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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