Rapid radiochemical isolation of praseodymium from fission products

A radiochemical procedure has been developed for the isolation of fission-product praseodymium. The procedure involves solvent extraction of Ce(IV) into HDEHP, milking Pr(III) from Ce parents, and purification of Pr with TTA-TBP solvent extraction. The procedure has been used to isolate and study 12 min Pr-147 and 2.1 min Pr-148. Fission products were prepared by irradiation (approximately 2x1O12ncm-2sec-1) of enriched uranium (0.1-1.0 mg of 90% U-235) as uranyl nitrate solution. Detection by the γ-ray spectra most of which were obtained with a ''15%'' Ge(Li) detector (2.3 keV FWHM at 1332 keV). Low energy radiations of Pr-147 were detected with a small planar Ge(Li) detector (approximately 0.7 keV at 122 keV). (T.I.)