Optimization of SHINE Process: Design and Verification of Plant-Scale AG 1 Anion-Exchange Concentration Column and Titania Sorbent Pretreatment

Abstract

Argonne National Laboratory has developed a Mo-recovery and-purification system for the shine medical technologies process, which uses a uranyl sulfate solution for the accelerator-driven production of Mo-99. The objective of this effort is to reduce the processing time for the acidification of the Mo-99 product prior to loading onto a concentration column and concentration of the Mo-99 product solution. Two methods were investigated: (1) the replacement of the titania concentration column by an anion-exchange column to decrease processing time and increase the radioiodine-decontamination efficiency and (2) pretreatment of the titania sorbent to improve its effectiveness for the Mo-recovery and-concentration columns. Promising results are reported for both methods.

Development and Optimization of a Purification Process to Recover ⁹⁹Mo from Low-enriched Uranium

“…Langmuir isotherm parameters for the 0.1 M NaOH system had been measured previously for the same anion exchange resin. [25] The adsorption curve in Figure 17 shows that molybdenum uptake by AG 1-X8 is substantially higher from 0.1 M NaOH compared with the NH4OH solution tested in this work. These results suggest that loading the 99 Mo on the anion exchange column in 0.1 M NaOH would be preferable to the current practice of loading in 0.01 M NH4OH.…”

Metal Oxide Sorbents for the Separation of Radium and Actinium

“…Samples that utilized titania and zirconia did not exhibit any detectable quantities of their respected transition metal at pH 2, which is aligned with manufacturer specification sheets citing stability between pH 1 and 10. Although it is common practice to pretreat inorganic sorbents such as alumina and titania with acid until leachables are removed, 34 the zirconia resin offered sufficient Ba/La fractionation results with less risk of degradation.…”