DEVELOPMENT OF A PLANT-SCALE RESIN CALCINATION SYSTEM FOR PREPARING TRANSPLUTONIUM OXIDES AND OXYSULFATES

摘要

A plant-scale system was developed to prepare MOO mg batches of californium-252, or other transplutonium isotopes, as the oxysulfate or oxide without directly handling small quantities of liquid or solid. The californium is sorbed on ~50 cm3 of cation exchange resin in a platinum column, the resin is burned away, and the column is heated to form oxysulfate at 800°C or oxide at 1250°C. The platinum column is then sealed and shipped to the user, who can dissolve and remove the product by passing nitric acid through the column. Process operating conditions and equipment requirements were first defined by tests with stainless steel columns using dysprosium as a stand-in for the transplutonium isotopes. Calcination tests were then conducted to demonstrate the process in platinum columns with terbium, californium-252, curium-242, and curium-244.