ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jun 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2026
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2026
Latest News
Breaking ground on a new approach to construction
The drive to Kairos Power’s reactor demonstration site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is not only scenic—it’s historic. Nearly 85 years ago, roughly 30,000 construction workers transformed orchards and farmland into a key Manhattan Project site. Depending on your route, you may pass by one of the three gatehouses that were once military checkpoints controlling access to Atomic Energy Commission production facilities.
M. H. Lloyd
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 17 | Number 3 | November 1963 | Pages 452-456
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE63-A17398
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An anion exchange process for the recovery of americium, curium, and rare earths contained in the waste effluent from plutonium processing has been developed and tested on a laboratory scale. In the process the waste, which is a solution of americium, curium, aluminum, and fission products, in concentrated nitric acid, is concentrated by evaporation until a temperature of 140°C is reached. This removes excess acid, and the proper feed concentration of 2.34 M Al(NO3)3 is obtained by dilution. The americium, curium, and rare earths are sorbed on Dowex 1–10X resin; aluminum is washed from the column with 8 M LiN03; and the americium, curium, and rare earths are eluted with 0.65 M HN03. In laboratory demonstrations of this process made with americium tracer and macro amounts of rare earths, americium losses were undetectable, aluminum decontamination factors were 250, and rare earth concentration in the product was as great as 8.5 gm/liter.