Method of separating isotopes
AssigneeFramatome ANP GmbH
InventorsMarc Lemaire, Jacques Foos, Alain Guy, Frédéric Chitry, Stéphane Pellet-Rostaing, Olivier Vigneau
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Abstract
A process in which isotopes of the same element belonging to the alkaline earth metals, transition elements and heavy metals having an atomic mass of less than 209, in particular lanthanide metals, are separated in an aqueous medium by treating an aqueous medium.
Claims59
A process for separating, in an aqueous medium, isotopes of the same element belonging to the lanthanide metals, which process comprises (a) treating an aqueous medium comprising isotopes of an element, the isotopes being in the form of a salt and having positive charges in ionic form, with an organic ligand which is in ionic form in the aqueous medium and has the same number of negative charges as the isotopes in the ionic form has of positive charges, the ligand being designed to bind to at least one of the isotopes of the element, wherein the ligand is provided on an ion-exchange resin or a support carrying the ligand;
- (b) contacting the aqueous medium with the ligand to form a complex of at least one isotope bound to the ligand, and an aqueous medium containing isotopes not bound to the ligand;
- and (c) separating between the isotope-ligand complex and the aqueous medium containing isotopes not bound to the ligand.
A process for separating, in an aqueous medium, isotopes of the same element belonging to the lanthanide metals, which process comprises (a) treating an aqueous medium comprising isotopes of an element, the isotopes being in the form of a salt and having positive charges in ionic form, with an organic ligand which is in ionic form in the aqueous medium and has the same number of negative charges as the isotopes in the ionic form has of positive charges, the ligand being designed to bind to at least one of the isotopes of the element;
- and (b) separating between a complex of isotopes bound to the ligand and the aqueous medium containing isotopes not bound to the ligand, wherein the aqueous medium treated with the ligand is subjected to membrane filtration to separate the isotope-ligand complex from the aqueous medium containing isotopes not bound to the ligand.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.