Systems, apparatus and methods for separating actinium, radium, and thorium
AssigneesThe University of British Columbia, Triumf
InventorsAndrew Kyle Henderson Robertson, Hua Yang, Stefan Zeisler, Paul Schaffer
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Abstract
A method of separating actinium and/or radium from proton-irradiated thorium metal. The thorium metal is irradiated to produce isotopes including thorium, actinium and/or radium. The resultant product is dissolved in solution and a selective precipitant is used to precipitate a bulk portion of the thorium. The precipitated thorium can be recovered. Chromatography is carried out on the remaining solution to remove residual thorium and to separate the actinium from the radium.
Claims21
A method of producing thorium radioisotopes, the method comprising:
- irradiating thorium metal to produce thorium radioisotopes;
- dissolving the irradiated thorium metal in a strong mineral acid containing fluoride and drying the resulting solution;
- further dissolving the irradiated thorium metal in a weak acid to yield a first solution comprising dissolved thorium;
- adding a selective precipitant and precipitating a bulk portion of the dissolved thorium under precipitation conditions while leaving a second solution, wherein the selective precipitant comprises hydrogen peroxide or oxalic acid and wherein the weak acid is provided at a concentration of between about 0.005 M to about 4 M;
- and
- filtering to separate the precipitated thorium product from the second solution.
A method of producing thorium radioisotopes, the method comprising:
- irradiating thorium metal to produce thorium radioisotopes;
- dissolving the irradiated thorium metal in strong nitric acid having a concentration of between about 8 M and about 12 M and containing fluoride and drying the resulting solution;
- redissolving the irradiated thorium metal in weak nitric acid having a concentration of between about 0.005 M to about 4 M to yield a first solution comprising dissolved thorium;
- adding a selective precipitant and precipitating a bulk portion of the dissolved thorium under precipitation conditions while leaving a second solution, wherein the selective precipitant comprises hydrogen peroxide at a 1.05- to 5.0-fold molar excess relative to an amount of thorium metal present during the irradiating step and the precipitation conditions comprise ambient temperature;
- and
- filtering to separate the precipitated thorium product from the second solution.
A method of producing thorium radioisotopes, the method comprising:
- irradiating thorium metal to produce thorium radioisotopes;
- dissolving the irradiated thorium metal in a strong mineral acid and drying the resulting solution;
- further dissolving the irradiated thorium metal in a weak acid to yield a first solution comprising dissolved thorium;
- adding a selective precipitant and precipitating a bulk portion of the dissolved thorium under precipitation conditions while leaving a second solution, wherein the selective precipitant comprises hydrogen peroxide and wherein the weak acid is provided at a concentration of between about 0.005 M to about 4 M;
- and
- filtering to separate the precipitated thorium product from the second solution;
- wherein the strong mineral acid contains fluoride.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.