Rapid Separation of Photofissioned Uranium Products via a Single-Pass Multiplexed Chromatographic Fission Product Separation System

• Published in: Analytical chemistry (Washington) Vol. 93; no. 8; pp. 3770 - 3777
• Main Authors: Snow, Mathew S, Ward, Jessica, Bucher, Brian, Cooper, Justin T, Kinlaw, Mathew, Cárdenas, Edna, Horkley, Jared, Town, Hayden, Finck, Martha, Carney, Kevin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 02.03.2021
• Subjects: Barium; Chemical reduction; Chemistry; Cost analysis; Evaporation; Fission products; Gravimetry; Lanthanides; Oxidation; Radioactive contamination; Radioactive pollution; Reagents; Separation; Strontium; Transposition; Uranium; Zirconium
• ISSN: 0003-2700; 1520-6882
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.0c04130

Current state-of-the-art fission product separations frequently involve multiple independent separation columns and sample manipulation processes; to couple these processes together, multiple evaporation and transposition steps are often required. The addition of these steps results in lengthy separation times, increased analysis costs, the potential for sample loss, and release of radioactive contamination. We report a new semiautomated method for the rapid separation of U, Zr, Mo, Ba, Sr, Te, and lanthanide fission products from irradiated uranium samples. Chemical yields for U, Zr, Ba, Sr, Te and the lanthanides from less than 3-day old uranium fission product samples are consistently greater than 90%, while those of Mo are greater than 70%. This method minimizes the use and addition of oxidation and reduction reagents that often cause issues with retention and separation. Uranium dissolution and fission product separations using this single-pass method are achievable in under 2 h, representing a significant improvement over traditional gravimetric uranium fission product separation procedures.