Radiochemical separation of strontium by isotopic exchange

Isotopic exchange has been used for the rapid separation of minute quantities of radio-strontium. A number of variables such as agitation time, concentration of strontium in both phases, mode of preparation and aging of the precipitates, were studied and optimized. With an optimized procedure, exchange yields of 96% and 94% respectively were obtained when strontium sulphate and strontium oxalate precipitates were used for the exchange. Decontamination studies made with radioactive tracers of 15 elements showed that the sulphate precipitate is more selective than the oxalate, most of the elements showing <1 % contamination except (140)Ba-(140)La and (110)Ag which show high contamination. This simple procedure has also been applied for the determination of radioactive strontium in rain-water samples.