The Transuranium Analytical Laboratory's Support for Production of Transcurium Isotopes during Campaign 74 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Abstract

The Radiochemical Engineering Development Center (REDC) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the production, storage, and distribution center for the heavy-element research program of the U.S. Department of Energy. The REDC and the neighboring High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) were built to produce quantities of transuranium elements for use in national and international research programs and since 1966 has been the main center of production for transcurium elements in the United States. In 2009, REDC successfully completed Campaign 74, its latest Bk-249/Cf-252 production campaign. The Transuranium Analytical Laboratory (TAL), located within REDC, provides the needed chemical and radiochemical analyses on a wide variety of nuclear matrixes in support of these production campaigns of transcurium isotopes. Titrations, dissolutions, separations, and dilutions of high activity samples are completed in hot-cells and glove-boxes in preparation for analytical radiochemistry determinations completed at the TAL in support of the REDC's mission. Within Campaign 74, the Transuranium Analytical Laboratory implemented a quick and reliable radiochemical method for the determination of Bk-249 that was used throughout the purification process at key hold points to ensure the delivery of a final purified product.

Keywords:

• Berkelium
• Bk-249
• Californium
• Cf-252
• extraction chromotography
• formic/thiocynate
• TEVA
• TTA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was conducted in support of Nuclear Science & Technology Division's Nuclear Materials Processing Group, which is sponsored by the Office of Nuclear Physics, U.S. Department of Energy, and the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy.

The submitted manuscript has been authored by a contractor of the U.S. Government under contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. Accordingly, the U.S. Government retains a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce the published form of this contribution, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes.