ACCURATE NUCLEAR FUEL BURNUP ANALYSES. Fourth Quarterly Progress Report, September-November 1962

Technical Report · Sat Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1962

OSTI ID:4742676

Rider, B F; Ruiz, C P; Peterson, Jr, J P

Work continued on the development of procedures for accurate nuclear fuel burnup analysis. The analysis of three fuel samples as a function of radius shows that fission products including Cs, Sr, Ce, and Zr can migrate in an oxide fuel. This could be a source of error in any burnup analysis based on a highly localized fission product-to-U ratio unless the fission product selected does not migrate. Each of the four fission products measured has a gaseous precursor. Upon completion of the Nd separation scheme development, the same samples will be analyzed for Nd to determine whether the lack of gaseous precursors in the heavy Nd fission product isotopes will help overcome this fission product migration problem. A chemical separation scheme for Nd was developed. It consists of three major steps including the removal of bulk U from 12M HCl solution on a Dowex-2 column, the separation of Nd from rare and alkaline eanths by extraction with di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid in hexane, and the removal of anionic impurities and soluble organic residues on a Dowex-50 column. Parallel work on reversed phase partition chromatography of Nd on columns of di(2- ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid supported on VYNS is scheduled for incorporation into the separations scheme in place of the solvent extraction step resulting in an all-column process. (auth)

• Research Organization: General Electric Co. Vallecitos Atomic Lab., San Jose, Calif.
• NSA Number: NSA-17-012716
• OSTI ID: 4742676
• Report Number(s): GEAP-4137
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ALKALINE EARTH METALS
BURNUP
CERIUM
CESIUM
CHROMATOGRAPHY
DIFFUSION
ERRORS
ETHYL RADICALS
FISSION PRODUCTS
FUELS
GASES
HEXANE
HYDROCHLORIC ACID
IMPURITIES
ISOTOPES
LABORATORY EQUIPMENT
MEASURED VALUES
METALS, CERAMICS, AND OTHER MATERIALS
NEODYMIUM
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
PHOSPHORIC ACID
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLUTIONS
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
STRONTIUM
ZIRCONIUM