Study on the flow rate of Column in Uranium Separation and Extraction

In this study, in the stage of separating and extracting uranium during the radioactive chemical processing, the injection flow rate of column chromatography was controlled in order to reduce the process time comparing the recovery rate of uranium. Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control (KINAC) developed the technology and equipment which can be used to detect uranium on facility sites in order to detect both declared and undeclared nuclear activities. In particular, among various environmental samples, the measurement of uranium in the air is an important activity which can be used to verify the use of authorized nuclear materials in nuclear facilities. In order to measure uranium in the air, it is required an air-sampling process, pre-conditioning processes, processes of separating and extracting uranium, processes of fabricating the standard source and measurements. However, radioactive chemical processes are mainly carried out in the laboratory for precise analyses. The methods have a lot of problems on sites. The column chromatography for separation of uranium from the mixture of environment sample is a complex and long process. In this study, with the purpose of reinforcing safeguards and rapid investigation of declared and undeclared nuclear activities on facility sites, the process time have to reduce as increasing the injection flow rate in the stage of separating and extracting uranium as a part of the radioactive chemical processes for samples in the air. Also, in order to analyze uranium quickly, the injection flow rate of the column was changed in comparison with the recovery rate of uranium. As a result, when the flow rate for the injection of samples and the last extraction of pure uranium were set to be 1 ml/min, it was possible to have a similar recovery rate of uranium regardless of the injection flow rate. At the injection flow rate of 7 ml/min which is the maximum injection flow rate, the process time was about 75 min. Compared to the previous method, it was confirmed that the process time was able to reduce by about 50%