In-beam and decay spectroscopy of transfermium nuclei

The anion exchange resin separation of plutonium was investigated as a possible technique for the rapid quantitative separation of plutonium from various metal ions. A slurry-column technique provided satisfactory separation of plutonium from quite a large number of metal ions. In this method, plutonium(IV) was adsorbed from 7.2M nitric acid onto Dowex 1 X2 resin, and the other metal ions washed from the column with nitric acid of the same strength. Then the plutonium was eluted with a 0.36M hydrochloric-0.01M hydrofluoric acid mixture. The separation was rapid and permitted an average recovery of 100.00% of the plutonium with a standard deviation of 0.048% for known solutions. Of the 46 diverse ions investigated, only silicon reduced the recovery of the plutonium below 99.9%. Applications of this separation to various methods of analysis of plutonium-containing materials are discussed. (auth)

The Quantitative Separation of Plutonium from Various Ions by Anion Exchange.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Radiation Laboratory B e r k e l e y , California Contract No. W-7405-eng-48 THE TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS E a r l K. Hyde and Glenn T . Seaborg F e b r u a r y 17, 1956 . P r e p r i n t of a contribution t o Volume 39, Handbuch d e r Physik Printed f o r the U. S. Atomic E n e r g y C o m m i s s i o n

The Transuranium Elements

The half-lives of 245Cm, 246Cm, 248Cm, 250Cf, 251Cf and 249Cf☆

Micro amounts of plutonium are quantitatively oxidized with fuming perchloric acid, and plutonium(VI) is reduced to plutonium(IV) with a slight excess of standand iron(IV) solution which is then titrated automatically with cerium(IV). Large sample sizes and weight burets are used for precise results. An average value for the plutonium content of a high purity metal sample of 99.98%, with a standard deviation of 0.02%, was obtained for 11 determinations, using 3- to 5-gram aliquots of a solution containing 63.111 mg. of the metal per gram. From the total of the concentrations of the trace impurities, the plutonium content of the sample was calculated to be 99.98%. a 26 foreign metals investigated, chromium, gold manganese, vanadium, and platinum seriously interfered, The spectrophotometric titration of plutonium is also discussed. (auth)

G.H. Higgins

Papers

The decay chain Pu245Am245Cm245