Proof-of-concept studies of novel protocols for producing highly pure V from a Cr/V generator.

The quest to improve the quality of nuclear data, such as half-lives, transition yields, and reaction cross-sections, is a shared endeavor among various areas of nuclear science. V is a vanadium isotope for which experimental data on neutron reaction cross-sections is needed. However, traditional isotope production techniques cannot produce V with high enough isotopic purity for some of these measurements.

Harvesting Zr from heavy-ion beam irradiated tungsten at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory.

Tungsten is a commonly used material at many heavy-ion beam facilities, and it often becomes activated due to interactions with a beam. Many of the activation products are useful in basic and applied sciences if they can be recovered efficiently. In order to develop the radiochemistry for harvesting group (IV) elements from irradiated tungsten, a heavy-ion beam containing Zr was embedded into a stack of tungsten foils at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and a separation methodology was devised to recover the Zr.

Solid-phase isotope harvesting of Zr from a radioactive ion beam facility.

During routine operation of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), radionuclides will accumulate in both the aqueous beam dump and along the beamline in the process of beam purification. These byproduct radionuclides, many of which are far from stability, can be collected and purified for use in other scientific applications in a process called isotope harvesting. In this work, the viability of Zr harvesting from solid components was investigated at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory.

Feasibility of isotope harvesting at a projectile fragmentation facility: ⁶⁷Cu.

The work presented here describes a proof-of-principle experiment for the chemical extraction of (67)Cu from an aqueous beam stop at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL). A 76 MeV/A (67)Cu beam was stopped in water, successfully isolated from the aqueous solution through a series of chemical separations involving a chelating disk and anion exchange chromatography, then bound to NOTA-conjugated Herceptin antibodies, and the bound activity was validated using instant thin-layer chromatography (ITLC). The chemical extraction efficiency was found to be 88 ± 3% and the radiochemical yield was ≥95%.