The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 24, 2015
Filed:
Nov. 13, 2012
Applicant:
General Atomics, San Diego, CA (US);
Inventors:
Timothy Creston Bertch, San Diego, CA (US);
Lloyd Chauncey Brown, San Diego, CA (US);
Assignee:
General Atomics, San Diego, CA (US);
Attorneys:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G21G 1/02 (2006.01); C22B 60/04 (2006.01); G21G 1/00 (2006.01); C01G 56/00 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G21G 1/001 (2013.01); C01G 56/006 (2013.01); C22B 60/04 (2013.01); G21G 1/02 (2013.01);
Abstract
A method for preparing plutonium-238 (Pu-238) includes using a nuclear reactor in irradiating a liquid containing a neptunium-237 (Np-237) based compound with neutrons to convert a portion of the Np-237 based compound to a Np-238 based compound; retaining the liquid containing the resulting mixture for a sufficient amount of time for the Np-238 based compound to at least partially convert to a Pu-238 based compound; and separating the Pu-238 based compound from the neptunium based compounds using fractional distillation or a chemical separation method.