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Production of Cf-252 and other transplutonium isotopes at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Journal Article · · Radiochimica Acta
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
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In 1957 Glenn T. Seaborg conceived and advocated for the construction of the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and the Transuranium Processing Plant (since then renamed the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center, or REDC) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. There, heavily shielded hot cells, glove boxes, and laboratories allow recovery of transuranium elements produced in substantial quantities. Seaborg’s vision of HFIR and REDC producing milligram quantities of berkelium, californium, and einsteinium has been fulfilled beginning in 1966 through May 2019 with 78 production campaigns yielding a cumulative totals of 1.2 g of 249Bk, 10.2 g of 252Cf, 39 mg of 253Es, and 15 pg of 257Fm. Notably, 252Cf is a neutron source used in many industrial applications including oil exploration; process control systems for the cement industry, coal analysis, and power production; sources to start nuclear reactors and perform nondestructive materials analyses; homeland security and national defense detection devices; and medical research. Isotopes made available through transplutonium production at HFIR/REDC have enabled scientists to study the nuclear properties and reactions, chemical properties, optical properties, and solid-state properties of transplutonium elements. Long-lived isotopes have served as targets in heavy ion accelerators to produce heavier elements leading to the discovery of 104Rf, 105Db, 106Sg, 113Nh, 114Fl, 115Mc, 116Lv, 117Ts, and 118Og. This paper reviews the evolution of the processing flowsheets to produce, separate, and purify transplutonium isotopes, which have evolved over 50 years of operation at HFIR and REDC, and summarizes directions of future work to improve the efficiency of the production operations.
Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1649431
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 22947487
Journal Information:
Radiochimica Acta, Journal Name: Radiochimica Acta Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 108; ISSN 0033-8230
Publisher:
de GruyterCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (7)

A new eluant for the separation of the actinide elements journal January 1956
Group separation of the actinides from the lanthanides by anion exchange journal June 1961
Actinide targets for the synthesis of super-heavy elements journal December 2015
Sensitivity Studies and Experimental Evaluation for Optimizing Transcurium Isotope Production journal March 2017
Discovery of element 117: Super-heavy elements and the “island of stability”* journal March 2017
Isolation of Transplutonium Elements by Tertiary Amine Extraction journal November 1963
The Purex Process-A Solvent Extraction Reprocessing Method for Irradiated Uranium report April 1957

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Related Subjects

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
actinides
berkelium
californium
einsteinium
separations chemistry
transplutonium