Traceability Research of Neodymium Isotope in Uranium Ore Concentrate

Uranium ore concentrate (UOC) is one of the nuclear materials for traceability research in nuclear forensics. It can provide geographic indication information by measuring the neodymium isotope abundance ratio. Based on the adsorption characteristics of TRU resin for uranium and rare earth elements, the optimal leaching acidity and volume were obtained through condition experiments, and the rare earth elements and a large amount of uranium matrix were separated. Samarium with isobaric interference was separated from lanthanide by LN resin. The combination of TRU and LN resin was used to effectively separate neodymium, and a method was established to separate uranium, samarium, and neodymium from the UOC. The uranium content in the eluent is less than 5 ng/g. The neodymium isotope was measured by multiacceptance inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The accuracy of the result is 0.002% and meets the requirements of neodymium isotope measurement. This method was used for the separation of neodymium in actual UOC samples and traced the source preliminarily.