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Westinghouse, Nordion, and PSEG team up to produce Co‑60 in the United States
This past January, Westinghouse Electric Company, Nordion, and PSEG Nuclear formalized agreements to implement newly developed cobalt-60 production technology at Units 1 and 2 of PSEG’s Salem nuclear power plant in New Jersey, with the Co-60 to be supplied to Nordion. Through an ongoing joint initiative, the companies aim to harness U.S. pressurized water reactors to produce a key medical isotope and build the first commercial-scale Co-60 production platform in the United States.
O. C. Dean, G. K. Ellis
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 4 | Number 4 | October 1958 | Pages 509-521
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE58-A28827
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A process, developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, produced thorium metal by the continuous reduction of anhydrous thorium tetrachloride with sodium amalgam on a scale up to 3.5 pounds per hour. The salt was vigorously agitated with an excess of sodium amalgam which was produced by the electrolysis of aqueous sodium hydroxide. The resulting slurry of thorium mercuride in mercury was washed free from impurities and reaction by-products with dilute HC1 and water. A solid concentrate of the thorium mercuride was prepared by filter-pressing the dilute slurry. The remaining mercury was removed by vacuum-distillation, resulting in massive metal of about 0.8 of the theoretical thorium density. The metal was fabricated into rods by direct extrusion or by arc-melting followed by extrusion.