Status of /sup 241/Am recovery and purification at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
Abstract
Americium recovery was initiated at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) in the late 1940's. The early procedures separated gram quantities of americium from large amounts of impurities including plutonium and the rare earths. Ion exchange procedures were developed for further purification. Until recently, no routine processing of americium has been done at LASL for several years. The increasing demand for americium in oil-well logging instruments and other uses led LASL to develop and install a process to recover larger quantities of americium. The LASL process was developed around the chemistry of americium that had been elucidated both at LASL and at other facilities. Presently, the americium feed is obtained as a by-product from a plutonium purification process at the new plutonium facility at LASL. This feed filtrate from a peroxide precipitation process is precipitated as a slurry of hydroxides, filtered, dissolved in nitric acid, and passed through an anion exchange column to remove any residual plutonium. The americium, contained in the effluent, is precipitated as the oxalate and calcined to the oxide. Americium is also available in other highly salted acidic process streams. These should lend themselves to solvent extraction. Developmental work has been promising, and a dibutyl butyl phosphate-kerosenemore »
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Los Alamos Scientific Lab., NM (USA)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 5167775
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-80-2414; CONF-800814-14
TRN: 80-015412
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- Resource Type:
- Conference
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 180. American Chemical Society meeting/2. chemical congress of the North American Continent, Las Vegas, NV, USA, 24 Aug 1980; Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; AMERICIUM 241; ION EXCHANGE; PRECIPITATION; PURIFICATION; RECOVERY; ACTINIDE ISOTOPES; ACTINIDE NUCLEI; ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES; AMERICIUM ISOTOPES; HEAVY NUCLEI; ISOTOPES; NUCLEI; ODD-EVEN NUCLEI; RADIOISOTOPES; SEPARATION PROCESSES; YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES; 400105* - Separation Procedures
Citation Formats
Ramsey, H D, Clifton, D G, Hayter, S W, Penneman, R A, and Christensen, E L. Status of /sup 241/Am recovery and purification at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. United States: N. p., 1980.
Web.
Ramsey, H D, Clifton, D G, Hayter, S W, Penneman, R A, & Christensen, E L. Status of /sup 241/Am recovery and purification at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. United States.
Ramsey, H D, Clifton, D G, Hayter, S W, Penneman, R A, and Christensen, E L. Tue .
"Status of /sup 241/Am recovery and purification at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5167775.
@article{osti_5167775,
title = {Status of /sup 241/Am recovery and purification at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory},
author = {Ramsey, H D and Clifton, D G and Hayter, S W and Penneman, R A and Christensen, E L},
abstractNote = {Americium recovery was initiated at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) in the late 1940's. The early procedures separated gram quantities of americium from large amounts of impurities including plutonium and the rare earths. Ion exchange procedures were developed for further purification. Until recently, no routine processing of americium has been done at LASL for several years. The increasing demand for americium in oil-well logging instruments and other uses led LASL to develop and install a process to recover larger quantities of americium. The LASL process was developed around the chemistry of americium that had been elucidated both at LASL and at other facilities. Presently, the americium feed is obtained as a by-product from a plutonium purification process at the new plutonium facility at LASL. This feed filtrate from a peroxide precipitation process is precipitated as a slurry of hydroxides, filtered, dissolved in nitric acid, and passed through an anion exchange column to remove any residual plutonium. The americium, contained in the effluent, is precipitated as the oxalate and calcined to the oxide. Americium is also available in other highly salted acidic process streams. These should lend themselves to solvent extraction. Developmental work has been promising, and a dibutyl butyl phosphate-kerosene extraction process is being brought on-line.},
doi = {},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {1980},
month = {1}
}