Laser-Induced Plasmas of Plutonium Dioxide in a Double-Walled Cell.

Plutonium research has been stifled by the significant number of administrative controls and safety procedures, space and instrumentation limitations in radiological gloveboxes, and the potential for personnel and equipment contamination. To address the limited number of spectroscopic studies in Pu-bearing compounds in the current scientific literature, this work presents the use of double-walled cells (DWCs) in "clean" buildings/laboratories as an alternative to research in radiological gloveboxes. This study reports the first laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) experiments of a PuO2 pellet contained within a DWC, where the formation of elemental (atomic and ionic) species as well as the evolution from elemental to molecular products (PuxOy) was measured. Raman spectroscopy was also used to characterize the surface of the ablated pellet and the particulates deposited on the window of the inner cell. The full width half-maximum of the T2g band enabled us to obtain an estimate of the temperature at the pellet surface after the ablation pulse and the particulates based on the crystal lattice disorder. Particulates deposited on the window of the DWC during laser ablation were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, where molten irregular particulates and spheroids were observed. This exciting research conducted in a DWC describes our initial attempts to incorporate LIBS in the arsenal of spectroscopic tools for nuclear forensics applications.

Impact of Precipitation Parameters on the Specific Surface Area of PuO2.

Controlling the properties of PuO2 through processing is of vital importance to environmental transport and fate, production of nuclear fuels, nuclear forensic analyses, stockpile stewardship, and storage of nuclear wastes applications. A number of processing conditions have been identified to control final product properties, including specific surface area (SSA), residual carbon content, adsorption of volatile species, morphology, and particle size. In this paper, a novel approach is developed for the prediction of PuO2 SSA via the synthetic route of Pu(IV) oxalate precipitation followed by calcination. The proposed model utilizes multivariate regression methodology and leave one out formalism to link Savannah River Site (SRS) precipitation and calcination production data to the SSA of the final product. A comparison among the models provides insight into the accuracy and ability to identify variations amongst the processing data. Additionally, the models may also be used to fit new data outside of the parameters explored in a production facility. Finally, the trained model was compared to a similarly trained conventional model form to illustrate the influence of precipitation parameters on the prediction of the final SSA. The models presented here attempt to provide new methods for more accurate prediction of the PuO2 product properties in a production scale environment for key environmental and nuclear applications.

High-Capacity Poly(4-vinylpyridine) Grafted PolyHIPE Foams for Efficient Plutonium Separation and Purification.

The use of anion-exchange resins to separate and purify plutonium from various sources represents a major bottleneck in the throughput that can be achieved when this step is part of a larger separation scheme. Slow sorption kinetics and broad elution profiles necessitate long contact times with the resin, and the recovered Pu is relatively dilute, requiring the handling of large volumes of hazardous material. In this work, high internal-phase emulsion (HIPE) foams were prepared with a comonomer containing a dormant nitroxide. Using surface-initiated nitroxide-mediated polymerization, the foam surface was decorated with a brush of poly(4-vinylpyridine), and the resulting materials were tested under controlled flow conditions as anion-exchange media for plutonium separations. It was found that the grafted foams demonstrated greater ion-exchange capacity per unit volume than a commercial resin commonly used for Pu separations and had narrower elution profiles. The ion-exchange sites (quaternized pyridine) were exposed on the surface of the large pores of the foam, resulting in convective mass transfer, the driving force for the excellent separation properties exhibited by the synthesized polyHIPE foams.

Separation of americium from curium by oxidation and ion exchange.

Nuclear energy has the potential to be a clean alternative to fossil fuels, but in order for it to play a major role in the US, many questions about the back end of the fuel cycle must be addressed. One of these questions is the difficult separation of americium from curium. Here, we report the oxidation of Am in two systems, perchloric acid and nitric acid and the affect of changing the acid has on the oxidation. K(d) values were observed and a direct separation factor was calculated and was seen to be as high as 20 for four metal(IV) pillared phosphate phosphonate inorganic organic hybrid ion exchange materials. These ion exchangers are characterized by very low selectivity for cations with low charge but extremely high uptake of ions of high charge.

Syntheses, structures, and ion-exchange properties of the three-dimensional framework uranyl gallium phosphates, Cs4[(UO2)2(GaOH)2(PO4)4].H2O and Cs[UO2Ga(PO4)2].

The reaction of UO(2)(NO(3))(2).6H(2)O with Cs(2)CO(3) or CsCl, H(3)PO(4), and Ga(2)O(3) under mild hydrothermal conditions results in the formation of Cs(4)[(UO(2))(2)(GaOH)(2)(PO(4))(4)].H(2)O (UGaP-1) or Cs[UO(2)Ga(PO(4))(2)] (UGaP-2). The structure of UGaP-1 was solved from a twinned crystal revealing a three-dimensional framework structure consisting of one-dimensional (1)(infinity)[Ga(OH)(PO(4))(2)](4-) chains composed of corner-sharing GaO(6) octahedra and bridging PO(4) tetrahedra that extend along the c axis. The phosphate anions bind the UO(2)(2+) cations to form UO(7) pentagonal bipyramids. The UO(7) moieties edge-share to create dimers that link the gallium phosphate substructure into a three-dimensional (3)(infinity)[(UO(2))(2)(GaOH)(2)(PO(4))(4)](4-) anionic lattice that has intersecting channels running down the b and c axes. Cs(+) cations and water molecules occupy these channels. The structure of UGaP-2 is also three-dimensional and contains one-dimensional (1)(infinity)[Ga(PO(4))(2)](3-) gallium phosphate chains that extend down the a axis. These chains are formed from fused eight-membered rings of corner-sharing GaO(4) and PO(4) tetrahedra. The chains are in turn linked together into a three-dimensional (3)(infinity)[UO(2)Ga(PO(4))(2)](1-) framework by edge-sharing UO(7) dimers as occurs in UGaP-1. There are channels that run down the a and b axes through the framework. These channels contain the Cs(+) cations. Ion-exchange studies indicate that the Cs(+) cations in UGaP-1 and UGaP-2 can be exchanged for Ca(2+) and Ba(2+). Crystallographic data: UGaP-1, monoclinic, space group P2(1)/c, a = 18.872(1), b = 9.5105(7), c = 14.007(1) A, beta = 109.65(3)(o) , Z = 4 (T = 295 K); UGaP-2, triclinic, space group P, a = 7.7765(6), b = 8.5043(7), c = 8.9115(7) A, alpha = 66.642(1)(o), beta = 70.563(1)(o), gamma = 84.003(2)(o), Z = 2 (T = 193 K).

Hydrothermal preparation, structures, and NLO properties of the rare earth molybdenyl iodates, RE(MoO2)(IO3)4(OH) [RE = Nd, Sm, Eu].

The reactions of RE(IO3)3 [RE = Nd, Sm, Eu] with I2O5 and MoO3 in a 1:2:2 molar ratio at 200 degrees C in aqueous media provide access to RE(MoO2)(IO3)4(OH) [RE = Nd (1), Sm (2), Eu (3)] as pure phases as determined from powder X-ray diffraction data. Single crystal X-ray diffraction experiments demonstrate that these compounds are isostructural and crystallize in the chiral and polar space group P2(1). The structures are composed of three-dimensional networks formed from eight-coordinate, square antiprismatic RE3+ cations and MoO2(OH)+ moieties that are bound by bridging iodate anions. The Mo(VI) centers are present in distorted octahedral environments composed of two cis-oxo atoms, a hydroxo group, and three bridging iodate anions arranged in a fac geometry. There are four crystallographically unique iodate anions in the structures of 1-3, one of these is actually present in the form of a IO3+1 polyhedron where a short interaction of 2.285(4) A is formed between the iodate anion and the hydroxo group bound to the Mo(VI) center. This interaction results in significant distortions of the iodate anion similar to those found in tellurites with TeO3+1 units. Two of the four iodate anions are aligned along the polar b-axis, imparting the required polarity to these compounds. Second-harmonic generation (SHG) measurements on sieved powders of 1 show a response of 350 x alpha-quartz. Crystallographic data: 1, monoclinic, space group P2(1), a = 6.9383(5) A, b = 14.0279(9) A, c = 7.0397(5) A, beta = 114.890(1) degrees, Z = 2; 2, monoclinic, space group P2(1), a = 6.9243(6) A, b = 13.963(1) A, c = 7.0229(6) A, beta = 114.681(1) degrees, Z = 2; 3, monoclinic, space group P2(1), a = 6.9169(6) A, b = 13.943(1) A, c = 7.0170(6) A, beta = 114.542(1) degrees, Z = 2.