Systems, apparatus and methods for separating actinium, radium, and thorium
AssigneesTriumf, The University of British Columbia
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.
Claims46
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A method of producing thorium radioisotopes, the method comprising:
- irradiating thorium metal to produce thorium radioisotopes;
- 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;
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- filtering to separate the precipitated thorium product from the second solution.
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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.