The vapor deposition of high specific activity actinides

We describe the preparation of targets of U-233, Np-237 and (239)Pi by vapor deposition. A dual glove box system is used for the preparation of the fluorides of these actinides, and the subsequent vapor deposition. The preparation of the actinide fluorides is done by an aqueous precipitation procedure with yields of greater than 90%. The yields of the vapor deposition of the fluorides are <= 3%. The characteristics of the targets produced by these techniques are enumerated along with a description of difficulties encountered in setting up these systems.