Reactor production of promethium-147

Journal Article · Wed Oct 31 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Applied Radiation and Isotopes

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apradiso.2018.10.025· OSTI ID:1819632

Broderick, Kathleen ^[1]; Lusk, Rita ^[2]; Hinderer, James ^[2]; Griswold, Justin ^[3]; Boll, Rose ^[3]; Garland, Marc ^[4]; Heilbronn, Lawrence ^[5]; Mirzadeh, Saed ^[3]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Nuclear Security and Isotope Technology Division; Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville, TN (United States). Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry
2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Nuclear Security and Isotope Technology Division; Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Nuclear Engineering
3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Nuclear Security and Isotope Technology Division
4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Nuclear Security and Isotope Technology Division; USDOE Office of Nuclear Physics, Isotope Program, Washington, DC (United States)
5. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Nuclear Engineering

In this paper, we describe the ¹⁴⁷Pm production yields and level of impurities from several targets that consisted of milligram quantities of highly enriched ¹⁴⁶Nd oxide irradiated at the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for durations ranging from 24 to180 h. A comparison between theoretical and experimental data are also presented, and attempts were made to empirically evaluate the neutron capture cross-sections of 41.3-d ^148mPm and 5.4-d ^148gPm. For a one-cycle irradiation (~24 days), ¹⁴⁷Pm yield reaches a maximum value of 101.8 MBq/mg (2.75 mCi/mg) at 60 days after the end of bombardment. Because of large neutron capture cross-sections of ¹⁴⁷Pm, the yield of ¹⁴⁷Pm does not significantly increase with longer irradiation. Our estimates of the thermal neutron capture cross-section and resonance integral for ¹⁴⁶Nd at 1.48 ± 0.05 b and 2.56 ± 0.25 b, respectively, were consistent with the reported values. The effective neutron capture cross-section of ¹⁴⁷Pm to ^148mPm was 53.3 ± 2.7 b - a factor of 2 lower than the 98.7 ± 6.5 b calculated from reported cross-sections. The measured σ_eff to the ground state (5.37-d ^148gPm) was 82.0 ± 4.1 b; ~34 % lower than the value of 139 ± 0 b calculated from reported cross-sections. In this work, we also describe the development of a chemical process based on extraction and ion-exchange chromatography for separation of ¹⁴⁷Pm from milligram quantities of ¹⁴⁶Nd and other impurities. Sequential separation of Pm from the Nd target and from other radioisotopic impurities (¹⁵³Gd and ^154&155Eu, ¹⁹²Ir, and ⁶⁰Co) was achieved using a LN extraction resin in HCl media followed by further purification of Pm from ⁶⁰Co and ¹⁹²Ir using a low cross-linking cation exchange resin. Based on these data, we estimated that two rounds of purification under our experimental conditions can provide a mass separation factor of > 104 between Pm and Nd. Our data indicate that curie quantities of ¹⁴⁷Pm with suitable chemical and radioisotopic purity for applications in beta voltaic batteries can be produced by irradiating gram quantities of highly enriched ¹⁴⁶Nd in the flux trap of HFIR for one cycle.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP) (SC-26)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1819632
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 22827527
• Journal Information: Applied Radiation and Isotopes, Journal Name: Applied Radiation and Isotopes Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 144; ISSN 0969-8043
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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