Harvesting 88Zr from heavy-ion beam irradiated tungsten at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory

Tungsten is a commonly used material at many heavy-ion beam facilities, and it often becomes activated due to interactions with a beam. Many of the activation products are useful in basic and applied sciences if they can be recovered efficiently. In order to develop the radiochemistry for harvesting group (IV) elements from irradiated tungsten, a heavy-ion beam containing 88Zr was embedded into a stack of tungsten foils at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and a separation methodology was devised to recover the 88Zr. The foils were dissolved in 30% hydrogen peroxide, and the 88Zr was chemically purified from the tungsten matrix and from other co-implanted radionuclides (such as 85Sr and 88Y) using strong cation-exchange (AG MP-50) chromatographic resin in sulfuric acid media. The procedure provided 88Zr in approximately 60 mL 0.5 M sulfuric acid with no detectable radio-impurities. The overall recovery yield for 88Zr was (92.3 +/- 1.2)%. This proof-ofconcept experiment has facilitated the development of methodologies to harvest from tungsten and tungstenalloy parts that are regularly irradiated at heavy-ion beam facilities.

Automated summary

This article presents a radiochemistry method to recover 88Zr from irradiated tungsten using a heavy-ion beam. The method involves dissolving tungsten foils in hydrogen peroxide, followed by chemical purification of 88Zr from the tungsten matrix and other co-implanted radionuclides using strong cation-exchange chromatographic resin. The procedure yielded 88Zr with no detectable radio-impurities in sulfuric acid solution. The results demonstrate the potential for recovering elements from irradiated tungsten parts.