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Isotopes 鈥� Faster Ac-225 production

  • Chemist Kevin Gaddis has adapted components of a high pressure ion chromatography system
    to withstand the extreme conditions of a hot cell. The pump-driven system could cut the time needed
    for isotope separations by 75%. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

  • Chemist Kevin Gaddis built a control panel for the HPIC that uses air pressure instead of
    electronics, so that it can used inside a hot cell during the processing of actinium-225. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

  • Initially, Kevin Gaddis鈥檚 adapted HPIC will be used only for the fourth of six separations in
    actinium-225 processing, but he hopes it will later be used for other separations 鈥� and other isotopes. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

  • Chemist Kevin Gaddis has adapted components of a high pressure ion chromatography system
    to withstand the extreme conditions of a hot cell. The pump-driven system could cut the time needed
    for isotope separations by 75%. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

  • Chemist Kevin Gaddis built a control panel for the HPIC that uses air pressure instead of
    electronics, so that it can used inside a hot cell during the processing of actinium-225. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

  • Initially, Kevin Gaddis鈥檚 adapted HPIC will be used only for the fourth of six separations in
    actinium-225 processing, but he hopes it will later be used for other separations 鈥� and other isotopes. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

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An Oak Ridge National Laboratory researcher has invented a version of an isotope-separating device that can withstand extreme environments, including radiation and chemical solvents.

ORNL鈥檚 Kevin Gaddis designed the automated high pressure ion chromatography, or HPIC, system to improve purification of actinium-225, an isotope used in cancer treatments, from thorium targets that have been irradiated in a particle accelerator.

Previously, technicians relied on gravity to perform separations in hot cells, since high radiation levels would destroy an HPIC鈥檚 electronic components. Gaddis used radiation-tolerant materials to build a HPIC that uses air pressure, not electricity, to control the flow of the sample and chemicals that separate Ac-225 from byproducts. In tests, the HPIC cut separations time by 75%.

That鈥檚 important because demand is high for Ac-225, which has a short half-life. 鈥淗ours matter,鈥� Gaddis said. 鈥淚f we can reduce the time for the separation, we can get more product out.鈥�