Separation of thorium impurity from plutonium in the nitrate anion exchange process

Technical Report · Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1989

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6437364· OSTI ID:6437364

Marsh, S F; Phillips, B J; Aldaz, E A; Williams, W E

Thorium is a common impurity in many materials processed at the Los Alamos Plutonium Facility. Although the thorium impurity level is usually less than 1000 ppM, it frequently exceeds the maximum allowable limit of 100 ppM. Thorium is especially difficult to separate from plutonium because it accompanies plutonium in the three aqueous nitrate processes used at Los Alamos: nitrate anion exchange, oxalate precipitation, and peroxide precipitation. Nitrate anion exchange, the major aqueous plutonium purification process, has recently been modified to remove most of the thorium from sorbed plutonium by washing the column with 4.7 M nitric acid-0.007 M hydrofluoric acid. This chromatographic washing technique requires careful process control that is readily attainable with the recently developed Los Alamos On-Line Gamma Monitor. The successful separation of thorium using this modification has been demonstrated in routine, full-scale, nitrate anion exchange operations. 3 refs., 8 figs.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 6437364
• Report Number(s): LA-11479; ON: DE89008956
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
PLUTONIUM
PURIFICATION
HYDROFLUORIC ACID
IMPURITIES
NITRATES
NITRIC ACID
SEPARATION PROCESSES
THORIUM
ACTINIDES
ELEMENTS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INORGANIC ACIDS
METALS
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
050800* - Nuclear Fuels- Spent Fuels Reprocessing
400202 - Isotope Effects
Isotope Exchange
& Isotope Separation