THE RECOVERY AND PURIFICATION OF MULTI-KILOCURIE QUANTITIES OF FISSION PRODUCT STRONTIUM BY CATION EXCHANGE

In seven production runs, 75,000 curies of Sr/sup 90/ were isolated and purified in the ion-exchange equipment of Hanford Laboratories High Level Cells. The production goal (60,000 curies of purified Sr/sup 90/) and the time schedule were met or exceeded and the product exceeded the customer's purity requirements. The hot-cell-purified strontium made possible the completion on time of the Weather Bureau power source and the Martin 10 watt SNAP VII-A and VIl-C units. The isotopic purity of the strontium product was 56% Sr/sup 90/. The chemical purity was greater than 95% strontium. The Zr-Nb/sup 95/ contamination of the product was less than 5 x 10/sup -5/ curies per curie of Sr/sup 90/, and the Ce- Pr contamination was less than 1 x 10/sup -5/ curies per curie of Sr/sup 90/. The final run yielded 16,500 curies of Sr/sup 90/ in an eight liter product solution. The product was >98% strontium and contained less than one curie of Zr- Nb/sup 90/ or Ce-Pr/sup 144/. Eleven days of continuous operation were required to complete the run. (auth