Isolation of lanthanides from spent nuclear fuel by means of high performance ion chromatography (HPIC) prior to mass spectrometric analysis

Pure and complete fractions of neodymium, samarium, europium, gadolinium and dysprosium were isolated by means of high performance ion chromatogra- phy, using a cation exchange column and gradient elution with alpha-hydroxyisobutyric acid solutions (a-HIBA). Intermediate precision and robustness of the isolation method was investigated, identifying eluent pH as the most important parameter. Investigation of the elution behaviour of the most important fission and activation products and actinides indicated that preventing the accumulation of cesium on the cation exchange column required further isocratic elution with a higher concentrated a-HIBA solu- tion after elution of the lanthanides. A sample matrix free of carbon was achieved by means of acid digestion, fol- lowed by UV photo-oxidation, resulting in samples suit- able for mass spectrometric analysis.

Publication year:2017

BOF-keylabel:yes

IOF-keylabel:yes

BOF-publication weight:0.5

CSS-citation score:1

Authors from:Government, Higher Education