정화경 (한국원자력연구원)

임상호 (한국원자력연구원)

정화경 (한국원자력연구원)

정소진 (한국원자력연구원)

이동우 (한국원자력연구원)

정선경 (한국원자력연구원)

김지혜 (한국원자력연구원)

임상호 (한국원자력연구원)

This study focuses on optimizing chemical separation of neodymium (Nd), one of the fission products used in burnup analysis of spent nuclear fuel. We established appropriate analytical procedure using a gas pressurized extraction chromatography (GPEC) system with anion-exchange resin to obtain sufficiently high separation resolution of Nd from interfering elements. It was confirmed that the optimized procedure ensures a complete separation of Nd and samarium (Sm) with multi-channel ICP-MS (Spectro MS, AMITEK), significantly narrowing the Nd elution peak and increasing the theoretical plate number by 10 times. As a result, it demonstrated high precision with an average Nd recovery of 90.8% and a low relative standard deviation (RSD) of 1.0%. Through verification experiment using simulated fussion product solution, the GPEC method reduced the total analysis time required for chemical separation by 1.9 times and decreased the eluent volume by 3.7 times with comparison to conventional gravimetric column chromatography. The GPEC-based chemical separation procesure in this study is expected to be utilized for highly efficient and rapid separation of Nd istotopes required for burnup measurement of actual spent nuclear fuel in the future.