Safety Assessment
- Great care should be taken to avoid getting uranium compounds in solid or liquid form on the skin.
- Wear a lab coat, disposable gloves and safety glasses at all times.
- DO NOT dispose of any liquid or solid waste down sinks or in waste bins. Place in the red waste buckets provided.
Aim
To separate
234Th from its parent
238U and measure its activity, and the comparison of the measured activity with the calculated value to deterine the yield of the separation.
Theory
One of the four natural radioactive decay series is the (4n + 2) series which starts at
238U. The first few steps in the series are shown in the script for experiment 15A (Separation of
234mPa from
238U and the measurement of its half-life) . In any sample of natural uranium, although the bulk may be
238U, small amounts of 234Th, 234mPa, 234Pa and 234U will be present. Since thorium is chemically different from uranium, chemical separation may be used to isolate it from a sample of natural uranium. This experiment uses co-precipitation of
234Th with ferric hydroxide to perform the chemical separation.
Experimental procedure for the separation of 234Th from 238U
Questions - The separation of 234Th from 238U