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Irradiation and isolation of fission products from uranium metal–organic frameworks

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Abstract

Typical fission product formation experiments utilize metal or oxide target materials that must be dissolved prior to product separation. We report here a novel study using metal–organic frameworks for recovery of fission products into acidic media. We further show that the frameworks are largely preserved, such that this bulk target material could be retained for additional irradiations or characterizations. Through this approach, fission products can be separated from the actinide-based metal–organic framework using 0.01 M HNO3 without the need to dissolve the framework itself, reducing the amount of acidic waste. Extraction yields of four frameworks with varying pore sizes are compared. The results suggest that it may be possible to use porous frameworks as target materials for the extraction of select fission products.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Dr. D. Mast (UNLV) for single crystal analysis, Dr. T. Bredeweg (LANL) for provision of the sample holders, as well as help with the irradiations, and J. Bertoia (UNLV), T. Low (UNLV), R. Springs (UNLV), and Dr. D. Lowe (Varex) for their help with gamma-ray spectroscopy. This research was completed as part of the dissertation work for JMD [48]. For financial support of this work, we acknowledge the LANL G. T. Seaborg Institute for Transactinium Science (graduate funding to JMD), and the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office under competitively awarded contract IAA: HSHQDC-16-X-00088 (post-doctoral funding to JMD). This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under Grant Award Number, 2012-DN-130-NF0001. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. We also acknowledge the Development of a Synthetic Debris for Nuclear Forensics, Prime Contract No. DE-AC52-06NA25946, Subcontract No. 104777 Task Order 41. Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by Triad National Security, LLC. for the National Nuclear Security Administration for the U.S. Department of Energy (Contract DE-SOL-0011206). LA-UR-18-30985.

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  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Nevada - Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, 89154, USA

    Jacquelyn M. Dorhout & Kenneth R. Czerwinski

  2. Chemistry Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA

    Jacquelyn M. Dorhout & Marianne P. Wilkerson

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  1. Jacquelyn M. Dorhout
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Dorhout, J.M., Wilkerson, M.P. & Czerwinski, K.R. Irradiation and isolation of fission products from uranium metal–organic frameworks. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 320, 415–424 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-019-06478-w

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