Speaker
Dr
Ewelina Chajduk
(Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Dorodna 16, 03-195 Warsaw, Poland)
Description
The aim of this work was elaboration of radiochemical scheme for separation micro-amounts of uranium and protactinium from macro-amounts of Th, what can be helpful in nuclear power engineering for the analysing thorium-uranium fuel cycle as well as IV generation nuclear reactors. Naturally abundant isotope of thorium, 232Th is the fertile material. In the nuclear reactor, 232Th is transmuted into the fissile artificial uranium isotope 233U.. Elaborated separation procedure is based on extraction chromatography, which combines the selectivity of liquid-liquid extraction with the rapidity and quantitativity of chromatographic methods. In first step, Pa is quantitatively isolated from micro-amount of U and macro-amount of 232Th on the column filled with TOPO supported on hydrophobic sorbent. Next, effluent containing thorium and U traces is loaded onto the column filled with quaternary aliphatic amine and an elution is conducted with a mixture of nitric and hydrofluoric acids with an addition of aluminium nitrate and H2O. Uranium is selectively eluted with first 5-10 mL, whereas Th is eluted in next 35-40 mL.
This work was partly supported by the POIG grant No: POIG .01.03.01-00-076/08
Author
Dr
Ewelina Chajduk
(Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Dorodna 16, 03-195 Warsaw, Poland)
Co-authors
Prof.
Halina Polkowska-Motrenko
(Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology)
Mr
Pawel Kalbarczyk
(Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology)
