Californium production at the transuranium processing plant. [Transuranium processing plant design, equipment, and facilities]

Conference · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1976

OSTI ID:7195440

King, L J

The Transuranium Processing Plant (TRU) at ORNL, which is the production, storage, and distribution center for the ERDA heavy element research program, is described. About 0.5 percent of /sup 252/Cf is currently being produced. TRU is a hot-cell, chemical processing facility of advanced design. New concepts have been incorporated into the facility for absolute containment, remote operation, remote equipment installation, and remote maintenance. The facilities include a battery of nine heavily shielded process cells served by master-slave manipulators and eight laboratories, four on each of two floors. Processing includes chemical dissolution of the targets followed by a series of solvent extraction, ion exchange, and precipitation steps to separate and purify the transuranium elements. The transcurium elements Bk, Cf, Es, and Fm are distributed to users. Remote techniques are used to fabricate the Am and Cm into target rods for reirradiation in the HFIR. Californium-252 that is in excess of the needs of the heavy element research program and the Cf sales program is stored at TRU and processed repeatedly to recover the daughter product /sup 248/Cm, which is a highly desirable research material. (auth)

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., Tenn. (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7195440
• Report Number(s): CONF-760436-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
400703* -- Radiochemistry & Nuclear Chemistry-- Radioisotope Production
ACTINIDE ISOTOPES
ACTINIDE NUCLEI
ACTINIDES
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BERKELIUM
CALIFORNIUM
CALIFORNIUM 252
CALIFORNIUM ISOTOPES
CURIUM 248
CURIUM ISOTOPES
EINSTEINIUM
ELEMENTS
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
FERMIUM
HEAVY NUCLEI
ISOTOPE PRODUCTION
ISOTOPES
METALS
NUCLEI
PRODUCTION
RADIOISOTOPES
TRANSPLUTONIUM ELEMENTS
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES