Neptunium irradiated

Planet pluto) Plutonium was the second transuranium element of the actinide series to be discovered. The isotope 238pu was produced in 1940 by Seaborg, McMillan, Kennedy, and Wahl by deuteron bombardment of uranium in the 60-inch cyclotron at Berkeley, California. Plutonium also exists in trace quantities in naturally occurring uranium ores. It is formed in much the same manner as neptunium, by irradiation of natural uranium with the neutrons which are present. 

Subsequently, solvent extraction was applied to recover the fission product technetium from the residue remaining after the fluorination of irradiated uranium fuel elements . The residue was leached with concentrated aluminum nitrate solution, which was extracted by 0.3 M trilaurylamine in a hydrocarbon diluent. After separation of uranium, neptunium, and aluminum nitrate, technetium was back extracted into a 4 N sodium hydroxide solution. 

Heavier isotopes Es-253, Es-254 and Es-255 can be produced in a nuclear reactor by multiple neutron capture reactions that may occur when uranium, neptunium and plutonium isotopes are irradiated under intense neutron flux. These and other isotopes also are produced during thermonuclear explosions. 

Synthesis of plutonium in significant quantities requires a sufficiently long reactor fuel irradiation period. Uranium, plutonium, and the fission products obtained after neutron irradiation are removed from the reactor and stored under water for several weeks. During such cooling periods most neptunium-239 initially formed from uranium and present in the mixture transforms to plutonium-239. Also, the highly radioactive fission products, such as xenon-133 and iodine-131 continue to decay during this period. 

Protactinium-233 and neptunium-239 diphthalocyanines are prepared from the corresponding thorium-232 and uranium-238 diphthalocyanines by element transformation [6]. The existence of Pa and Np di-Pcs is proven by repeated sublimation of the irradiated parent compounds using platinum gauze to retain the impurities. Neptunium di-Pc is also synthesized on the tracer scale from irradiated uranium metal, using the normal synthetic method for uranium di-Pc (Example 29) [6], Other actinide phthalocyanines are reported [107-114], Their structures, as well as those of 200 metal phthalocyanines and their derivatives, are classified in an excellent recent review [115]. More recent experimental data on actinide phthalocyanines are absent in the available literature. 

A research and development program on the recovery and purification of potentially useful by-product actinides from the nuclear fuel cycle was carried out some years ago in the Federal Republic of Germany as part of the "Actinides Project" (PACT). In the course of this program, procedures for the recovery of neptunium, americium and curium isotopes from power reactor fuels, as well as procedures for the processing of irradiated targets of neptunium and americium to produce heat-source isotopes, have been developed. The history of the PACT Program has been reviewed previously (1). Most of the PACT activities were terminated towards the end of 1973, when it became evident that no major commercial market for the products in question was likely to develop. 

Modifications to this process can be made to effect recovery of neptunium, americium, curium, californium, strontium, cesium, technetium, and other nuclides. The efficient production of specific transuranic products requires consideration of the irradiation cycle in the reactor and separation of intermediate products for further irradiation. 

The irradiated neptunium targets are dissolved in HNO3 catalyzed with Hg(N02)2 The and Pu are then purified... 

When more them one solute is involved in the consideration of the process design, the situation becomes much more complex since the extraction behaviours of the different solutes will usually be interdependent. In the case of irradiated thermal reactor fuels the solvent extraction process will be dealing with uranium containing up to ca. 4% of fission products and other actinides. These will have only a minor effect on uranium distribution so that a single-solute model may be adequate for process design. However, in some cases nitric acid extraction may compete with U02 extraction and a two-solute model may be needed. In the case of breeder reactor fuels the uranium may contain perhaps 20% of plutonium or thorium. Neptunium or protactinium levels in such fuels may also not be negligible and, under these circumstances, the single-solute... 

Since 1958, more than 20 nuclides of actinides ranging from neptunium to einsteinium were identified and prepared for tracer studies. From neutron-irradiated uranium samples 2 9Np was adjusted to the pentavalent state and separated by TBP extraction from perchloric acid media. Plutonium-239 was separated by TBP extraction from nitric acid solution followed by anion exchange in a system of Dowex-1 resin and nitric acid. Neptunium-237 was separated from a spent fuel solution of JRR-1 (Japan Research Reactor -1) using anion exchange and TBP extraction. The TBP extraction in the hydrochloric acid medium is a simple and effective technique to purify neptunium from plutonium contamination. On the other hand, both anion exchange and solvent extraction with HDEHP could be used to separate tracer scale plutonium from irradiated neptunium targets. 

Separation of Actinides from the Samples of Irradiated Nuclear Fuels. For the purpose of chemical measurements of burnup and other parameters such as accumulation of transuranium nuclides in irradiated nuclear fuels, an ion-exchange method has been developed to separate systematically the transuranium elements and some fission products selected for burnup monitors (16) Anion exchange was used in hydrochloric acid media to separate the groups of uranium, of neptunium and plutonium, and of the transplutonium elements. Then, cation and anion exchange are combined and applied to each of those groups for further separation and purification. Uranium, neptunium, plutonium, americium and curium can be separated quantitatively and systematically from a spent fuel specimen, as well as cesium and neodymium fission products. 

In the frame of the PACT project, irradiation of several kilograms of Np-237 to produce Pu-238 was planned for the years after 1973. A test irradiation of ca. 180 g Np-237 was initiated by the Alkem company in 1970. The neptunium was fabricated by Alkem into target rods containing pellets of a 10 % NpO -iron-cermet. The targets were irradiated in the BR-2 reactor at Mol, Belgium, for about 2 months, and were then cooled for 9 months before processing in the Milli. 

The name comes from Neptunus, the Latin name for the god of the sea, but it was named after the planet Neptune, which had recently been discovered. The element was first prepared in 1940 by Edwin M. McMillan and Philip Abelson at the Berkeley Laboratory of the University of California. They irradiated uranium with neutrons to create the new element. Neptunium does not exist in nature and is primarily of scientific interest. It is used in neutron detection equipment. 

The important actinides in irradiated uranium fuel are uranium, neptunium, plutonium, americium, and curium, which are produced according to the reactions of Fig. 8.5. U,... 

Np. The isotope Np is formed in considerable quantities in reactors, by the nuclide chains initiated by (n, y) reactions in and by ( , 2n) reactions in Neutron capture by Np leads through Np to Pu, which is the principal alpha-emitting constituent of plutonium in power reactors. To produce Pu for use as a heat source for thermoelectric devices, neptunium has been recovered from irradiated uranium to form target elements for further irradiation in reactors. Commercial processes designed for this recovery are discussed in Chap. 10. 

This section describes processes for recovering neptunium from irradiated uranium. Neptunium is an example of one of the numerous elements in irradiated fuel that could be recovered as by-products of extraction of uranium and plutonium in the Purex process,... 

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