A chromatography chemistry for purifying Pa from U-Nb metal alloys.

We present a chromatography chemistry for purifying protactinium from uranium metal alloys containing weight-percent concentrations of niobium. Niobium is precipitated in 9 M HCl without the co-precipitation of Pa as demonstrated by gamma-ray spectrometry. Protactinium is further purified using Bio-Rad™ anion resin AG® 1-X8 and 9 M HCl + 0.0128 M HF. A Pa/Nb separation factor of 85,000 and a 90% Pa recovery is demonstrated, which is amenable to 231Pa concentration determination by isotope dilution and 231Pa/235U model age calculation for nuclear forensics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]