Rapid separation of individual lanthanide elements from mixed fission products
- 1 November 1980
- report
- Published by Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI)
Abstract
A microprocessor-controlled radiochemical separation system has been developed to separate lanthanide elements rapidly from fission products. The system is composed of two high performance liquid chromatography columns coupled in series by a stream-splitting injection valve. The first column separates the lanthanide group by extraction-chromatography using dihexyldiethylcarbamylmethyleneophoshate (DHDECMP) adsorbed on Vydac C/sub 8/ resin. The second column isolates the individual lanthanide elements by cation exchange using Aminex A-9 resin with ..cap alpha..-hydroxyisobutyric acid (..cap alpha..-HIBA) as the eluent. With this system, the fission-product lanthanide isotope /sup 158/Sm has been identified for the first time. It was produced from a spontaneously fissioning /sup 252/Cf source. Twenty-seven gamma-rays have been assigned to this activity which decays with a half-life of 5.51 +- 0.09 min. The /sup 158/Sm assignment is based upon the radiochemical separation of the Sm fraction from the lanthanide fission products and the observation of the growth and decay of the 45.9 min /sup 158/Eu daughter from an initially pure 5 min parent. The emission probability of the 324-keV gamma ray of /sup 158/Sm was also determined, from the growth and decay of the /sup 158/Eu daughter, to be 10.6 +- 1.2 gamma rays per 100 decays. Several new gamma raysmore » have been identified by half-life as belonging to the decay of /sup 157/Sm. Gamma-ray energies and relative intensities for /sup 157/Sm and /sup 158/Sm are reported. « lessKeywords
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