Rapid separation of nickel for 59Ni and 63Ni activity measurement in radioactive waste samples

Abstract

A separation procedure of Ni has been described for the quantification of 59Ni and 63Ni in radioactive wastes discharged from nuclear power plants and various research activities related to the nuclear fuel cycle. For a rapid separation of the Ni-nuclides in sixteen sample solutions in 0.2 M NH4-oxalate, a separation system composed of a peristaltic pump with sixteen channels and the same number of Ni–Resin columns was constructed. After sorption of the Ni-nuclides by sequentially passing 100 mL of the sample solution in 0.2 M NH4-oxalate, 130 mL of 0.1 M NH4-oxalate solution and 10 mL of deionized water as a wash into the columns, these were purely recovered by passing 10 mL of 9 M HCl into the Ni–Resin columns stacked in series on the anion exchange resin columns. The separation of the Ni-nuclides in sixteen sample solutions can be achieved within 7 h. The chemical yield of the proposed procedure is 92.3 ± 0.8 % (n = 5) and the gravimetric recovery in the preparation stage of the Ni-nuclide sources is also acceptable, 88.5 ± 1.3 % (n = 5).