Production of 89Sr in solution reactor

The new method for medical (89)Sr production in a reactor with solution fuel is proposed which is characterized by simplicity, high production efficiency and low buildup of radioactive waste. The main advantages of the new technology were validated by numerous experiments. The proposed new technology selectively extracts (89)Sr from a fuel of solution reactor and precludes penetration of (90)Sr into the final product. This method is based on the presence of gaseous radionuclide (89)Kr (T(1/2)=190.7s) in the decay chain (89)Se-->(89)Br-->(89)Kr-->(89)Rb-->(89)Sr. The performed experiments on taking the gas probes from internal volume of the solution 20 kW mini-reactor "Argus" have confirmed that the mechanism for (89)Sr delivery to the sorption volume of the reactor experimental loop is based on transport of gaseous (89)Sr predecessor-radionuclide (89)Kr. According to the measurements of radioactive impurities in a final (89)SrCl(2) solution, the filtration of the gas flow with cermet filters followed by cleaning of (89)Sr chloride solution in chromatographic columns with DOWEX-50 x 8 or Sr-Resin ensures reception of (89)Sr fully meeting the requirements for medical application. The experimental estimations have shown that the proposed new technology is multiply more productive than the traditional industrial methods of (89)Sr reception.