Cs-137 is of special interest to nuclear forensics investigators. Due to its 30-year half-life and emission of gamma radiation at certain known energy levels, the isotope is commonly used in industrial, research, and medical facilities. The relative abundance of commercial-grade Cs-137 suggests that investigators are more likely to encounter lost or stolen sources containing Cs-137 than any other radioactive isotope. An important part of identifying the origin of an unknown radioactive source consists of determining the age of the source. This can be accomplished by separating the Cs-137 from its daughter, Ba-137, and determining the ratio of the two. Current age-dating accuracy and precision are highly dependent on the recovery of the parent and daughter isotopes after separation. Separation of Cs-137 and Ba-137 is typically accomplished using extraction chromatography with Sr resin, after which mass spectrometry is utilized to determine the atom ratio of the two isotopes. Recovery of Ba-137 for analysis has been found to be problematic due to inconsistent chemical recoveries and the prevalence of natural Ba in laboratories. Previous work done on the age-dating of Cs-137 ceramics at ANL suggested that using a solution of 0.05 M ethylenediaminetetracetic acid (EDTA) at pH 6 promoted recovery of Ba-137 from chromatography resin, however further studies were still needed. This presentation will cover the results of a comparative study to test the effectiveness of different chelating agents, at various pH levels and concentrations, in recovering barium from Sr resin.

Recovering barium from strontium resin using chelating agents

255th National Meeting (2018)

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