Study on the production of ⁶³Ni nuclide

In this paper, the static distribution coefficient of Fe, Co in AG1-X8 in different concentrations of hydrochloric acid medium and the elution conditions of Ni in AG1-X8 were studied. A high enrichment (98.0 percent) nickel 62 target was placed in the Monogyny Research Reactor (Carr) in China and irradiated for 90 days at a neutron flux of approximately 8 × 10¹³ n • cm^-2 • s^-1. The irradiated nickel 62 (contain nickel 63) metal slice was dissolved in 10 mol/L HCl, and the nickel 63 was separated and purified by anion exchange resin AG1-X8 to realize the separation of nickel 63 and iron 59, cobalt 58 and other impurity nuclei. The experiment results showed that the static distribution coefficient of Fe, Co in anion exchange resin AG1-X8 increases with the increase of HCl concentration. When HCl concentration increases to 9 mol/L, the distribution coefficient is 177 and 12.7 respectively. The elution volume was 15 mL and the nickel recovery rate was 99.38% with 9 mol/L HCl. The theoretical specific radioactivity of ⁶³Ni was 0.51 Ci/gNi. The radionuclidic purity of ⁶³Ni was 99.99% and decontamination factor was 1.1 × 10³. The specific radioactivity of ⁶³Ni reached to 0.55 Ci/gNi. (authors)