Van de Graaff Experiments: Mo Redox Chemistry and Iodine Speciation
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) is assisting Morgridge Institute for Research (MIR) in its efforts to develop SHINE, which is an accelerator-driven process that will use a uranyl-sulfate solution for the production of Mo-99. Mo will be separated from an irradiated uranyl-sulfate solution using a titania sorbent; however, the highly reducing environment may lead to Mo reduction. If Mo is reduced to Mo(IV) or Mo(V), its adsorption and/or recovery will decrease, and an oxidizing agent will be required to ensure that Mo is present as Mo(VI). Another concern for SHINE is related to the speciation of iodine during irradiation, cooling, column loading and stripping, and Mo-99 purification. Both Mo oxidation state and iodine speciation experiments were performed using a Van de Graaff generator as a source of radiation. Initial results indicate that Mo may be reduced during irradiation because low Mo recoveries were obtained for three separate column experiments performed using irradiated solutions. The results were complicated, however, because nearly 60 min passed between the end of irradiation and the initiation of column experiments, and high back pressures were observed for two out of the three experiments. This also made it difficult to determine what variable caused low Mo recovery. Radiation dose and starting iodine species had no effect on overall iodine speciation, and iodide was the predominant species for all tests.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE NA Office of Nonproliferation and Verification Research and Development (NA-22)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 1121038
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/CSE-13/17
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- ENGLISH
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