Batch and column studies of radium, actinium, thorium and protactinium on CL resin in nitric acid, hydrochloric acid and hydrofluoric acid

Abstract

CL resin (TrisKem International) was characterized for separations of radium, actinium, thorium and protactinium. Batch studies are presented for radium, actinium and thorium in HCl and HNO3 as well as for radium, thorium and protactinium in HF. The uptake of thorium from dilute HNO3 (≤ 10−4 M) and dilute HCl (≤ 10−4 M) was found to be very high (Dw > 100 in HNO3 and > 1000 in HCl). Kinetics studies on thorium were performed in HCl and HNO3 to determine suitably for column separations. Six column separation studies are presented including the separation of trace thorium from radium and actinium in dilute HCl and HNO3, the separation of radium from 1 mg 232Th in dilute HCl, the separation of thorium and radium in the presence of HCl and excess Cl−, the separation of radium, protactinium and thorium by retention of protactinium and the separation of protactinium and thorium by retention of thorium.