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US 7,988,937 B1Granted
Decontamination of radioactive metals
OwnerW. Novis Smith, David S. Eaker +1inventors
InventorsW. Novis Smith, David S. Eaker, Rick Low
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a method for the volumetric decontamination of radioactive metals. The method includes the step of precipitating out radioactive gamma and beta emitting nucleotides and then recovering non-radioactive metal compounds.
Claims16
A method for the decontamination of radioactive metals which comprises the steps of:
- A) dissolving said radioactive metals in an aqueous acid solution which provides an oxidative environment in the presence of about 0.1 to 1% by weight of iron particles;
- B) neutralizing the solution from step A) to a pH of about 3 to 4 to form a gelatinous precipitate which contains radioactive gamma emitting nucleotides and beta emitting nucleotides and an iron compound;
- C) filtering the product of step B) and passing the filtrate through a strong anion exchange column;
- D) neutralizing the filtrate from step C) to a pH of about 10-12, optionally concentrating the filtrate from step C);
- and then
- E) recovering any metal compounds from step D).
3 more elements
A method for the decontamination of radioactive nickel which comprises the steps of;
- a) dissolving said radioactive nickel in an aqueous acid solution selected from the group consisting of sulfuric acid and nitric acid in the presence of about 0.1 to 1% by weight of iron particles;
- b) neutralizing the solution from step a) with a base to a pH of about 3 to 4 to form a gelatinous precipitate containing gamma and beta emitting nucleotides and an iron compound;
- c) filtering the product of step b) and passing the filtrate through a strong anionic exchange column which has been conditioned to a pH of about 4 with a solution of sodium sulfate or sodium nitrate;
- d) optionally concentrating the filtrate of step c) to obtain nickel sulfate or nickel nitrate, or neutralizing the filtrate of step c) with a base to obtain a nickel compound precipitate, and then
- e) recovering the nickel compound.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.