Disassembly of old radium sources and conversion of radium sulfate into radium carbonate for subsequent dissolution in acid
Journal article, 2016
In this work details of safe radium source disassembly which were previously used in brachytherapy are described and different methods for conversion of RaSO4 into aqueous solution are reviewed. The method of choice included three cycles of RaSO4 heating in 1.5 M Na2CO3 up to 85 °C, cooling and subsequent removal of supernatant. X-ray diffraction study showed that the method allows the synthesis of, presumably, amorphous RaCO3, which can be dissolved in mineral acid. Gamma spectrometric measurements showed that most of the initial RaSO4 was converted into solution and that 7 ± 1 % of the initial 210Pb was co-precipitated with RaCO3.
Co-precipitation
Sulfate
Carbonate
Dissolution
Lead
Radium
Author
Artem Matyskin
Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Energy and Material
Burcak Ebin
Industrial Materials Recycling
Mikhail S Tyumentsev
Industrial Materials Recycling
Christian Ekberg
Industrial Materials Recycling
Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Energy and Material
Stefan Allard
Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Energy and Material
Gunnar Skarnemark
Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Energy and Material
Henrik Ramebäck
Chalmers, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Energy and Material
Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
0236-5731 (ISSN) 1588-2780 (eISSN)
Vol. 310 2 589-595Subject Categories
Inorganic Chemistry
Analytical Chemistry
Driving Forces
Sustainable development
Areas of Advance
Energy
Roots
Basic sciences
DOI
10.1007/s10967-016-4927-x