Production of 89Zr serves as a crucial preliminary step for exploring Zr-chelates, determining their stability constants, and advancing radiolabeling methodologies for monoclonal antibody based theranostics. 89Zr is typically produced by the irradiation of natural yttrium targets, a process extensively documented in scientific literature. Two primary methods are employed: the 89Y(p,n)89Zr...
Global efforts to support non-uranium approaches for 99Mo production, due to the proliferation risks associated with 235U fission-based production methods, have recently taken huge strides towards fruition. Several linear accelerator-based methods are currently in late-stage development that can produce low specific activity 99Mo from enriched 98/100Mo targets. The development of...
Nowadays selective separation processes are sought after more than ever before. They are indispensable to meet the growing demand for individual rare earth elements, minor actinides partitioned from fission-produced lanthanides, as well as, overall, more concentrated and high-purity products. This research focuses on such separation techniques as solvent extraction which...
Effective separation of lanthanides (Ln) from the minor actinides (MA) is a crucial technical challenge to closing the nuclear fuel cycle. This separation is a necessary prerequisite to transmute long-lived isotopes of Am and Cm, which will allow a reduction of the repository volume, thermal load, and radiological toxicity of...
Pyroprocessing is an advanced technology for recycling used nuclear fuel. Pyrochemical processes encompass a wide range of chemical, physical, and electrochemical methods to partition fission products and other components from used nuclear fuel, which allows for the reuse of the actinides in nuclear fuel. This dissertation investigates two chemical systems...
Iodine-129 is a key risk driver at sites where nuclear materials have been fabricated or processed, and it is a predominant isotope of concern in long-term waste storage strategies. I-129 exists primarily as iodate in the subsurface at the Hanford Site in south-central Washington State. Between 15 and 40% of...
Partitioning of trivalent actinides (in particular, americium and curium) from the
fission produced light lanthanides is a major concern of used nuclear fuel reprocessing for
the purposes of waste disposal. Several solvent extraction processes have been developed
to address these chemically difficult separations. The historically employed TALSPEAK
Process utilizes di-2-ethylhexyl...
In this work, three isomeric forms of N, N'-diethyl, N, N'-ditolyldipicolinamide (EtTDPA) were synthesized. The elements thorium through americium, which make up a significant portion of the actinides in used nuclear fuel (with the exception of curium), and two fission products, molybdenum and technetium, were tested for their ability to...
Uranium dioxide has been used in industry both as a fuel for power reactors and as a target for the production of radioisotopes. One of the most important radioisotopes produced using these targets is molybdenum-99 (Mo-99, 65.94hr half-life), which is the parent isotope to technetium-99m (Tc-99m, 6.01hr half-life), a radioisotope...
Spent nuclear fuel (SNF) resultant from the generation of nuclear power is a chemically and radiologically diverse system which is advantageous to chemically process prior to geologic disposal. Hydrometallurgy is the primary technology for chemical processing for light water reactor spent fuels, where spent fuel is dissolved in an acid...