Glenn Seaborg’s Legacy: Rare Isotope Recovery from Irradiated Targets

The U.S. Department of Energy produced a variety of unique isotopes in production reactors at the Savannah River Site, supporting actinide research and national defense, ranging from short-lived light elements like silicon-30 through samarium-154 to berkelium-249 and californium-252. The Mark-18A targets, discussed elsewhere, are being processed to recover plutonium-244 and heavy curium for key laboratory applications and for the production of heavier isotopes. Additional heavy actinide targets were retained for potential isotope extraction, including items that were concentrated in plutonium-240, plutonium-242, and americium-241 before irradiation. Savannah River National Laboratory is characterizing the contents of these retained materials and working with scientific and forensics agencies to determine interest in specific fission products or unique concentrations of rare actinides and to verify recovery processes.