Amberlite XE-270, a macroreticular weak-base ion-exchange resin made by the Rohm and Haas Company, was used successfully over an 8-mo period in the Hanford Purex plant to purify ∼8 kg of 237Np. For routine purification of 237Np, the Amberlite XE-270 resin provides four important advantages over conventional microreticular strong-base resins used heretofore:

  1. greatly improved thorium decontamination performance
  2. a much sharper neptunium elution band
  3. operation at 25°C rather than at 40 or 50°C
  4. five-fold lower resin cost.