Separation of protactinium from uranium and other reaction products in the reaction of 60 MeV/nucleon 18O with natural uranium

Protactinium was produced by the reaction of 60 MeV/nucleon ¹⁸O with natural uranium. A simple, relatively fast radiochemical procedure was developed, which can be used for the extraction separation of protactinium from uranium and from the complex reaction products using 1-phenyl-3-methyl-4-benzoyl-5-pyrazolone and tri-iso-octylamine as extractants. Measurements of the gamma-ray spectra for the separated protactinium fractions were performed with a HPGe detector. The measured g-ray spectrum of protactinium shows that the decontamination from the main impurity elements, especially zirconium and niobium, is quite satisfactory.