In this work, we describe the production yields and level of impurities from several targets consisted of mg quantities of highly enriched 146Nd oxide irradiated at the ORNL-HFIR for durations ranging from 24 to 180 h. A comparison between theoretical and experimental data will also be presented. For a 1-cycle irradiation, 147Pm yield reaches a maximum value of 2.75 mCi/mg at 60 days post EOB. Due to large neutron capture cross-sections of 147Pm, the yield of 147Pm does not significantly increase with longer irradiation. Our estimates of the thermal neutron capture cross-section and resonance integral for 146Nd at 1.46 ± 0.05 b and 3.33 ± 0.25 b, respectively, were consistent with the reported values. The effective neutron capture cross-section of 147Pm to 148mPm was 53.3 ± 2.7 b -- a factor 2 lower than 122.3 ± 8.2 b calculated from reported cross-sections. The measured σeff to the ground state (5.37-d 148gPm) was 82.0 ± 4.1 b; ~34% lower than the value of 115.7 ± 11.7 b derived from reported cross-sections. In this work, we also describe the development of chemical process based on extraction and ion-exchange chromatography for separation of 147Pm from mg quantities of 146Nd targets, and other impurities. Based on these data, we estimated that two round of purification under our experimental conditions can provide a mass separation factor of &gt;104 between Pm and Nd. Our data indicate that curie quantities of 147Pm can be produced by irradiating gram quantities of highly enriched 146Nd target at the flux trap of ORNL HFIR for one cycle (~24 days) suitable for applications in beta voltaic batteries.

Reactor production of promethium-147 for application in beta voltaic batteries

256th National Meeting (2018)

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