Californium Recovery from Palladium Wire

Abstract

The recovery of ²⁵²Cf from palladium-²⁵²Cf cermet wires was investigated to determine the feasibility of implementation into the cermet wire production operation at the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The dissolution of Pd wire in 8 M HNO₃ and trace amounts of HCl was studied at both ambient and elevated temperatures. These studies showed that it took days to dissolve the wire at ambient temperature and only 2 hours at 60°C. Adjusting the ratio of the volume of solvent to the mass of the wire segment from 0.176 mL/mg down to 0.019 mL/mg resulted in little change in the kinetics of dissolution. A successful separation of ¹⁵³Gd, a surrogate for ²⁵²Cf, from Pd was demonstrated using ion exchange chromatography.

Keywords:

• californium
• cation exchange
• separations
• Californium-252 Program

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics, Isotope Development and Production for Research and Applications Program. ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE AC05-00OR22725.