Nitrogen isotope enrichment for nitride fuel by using hybrid chemical exchange process

In order to develop a feasible process for production of enriched nitrogen, chromatography operation was carried out to study the nitrogen isotope separation by using a high porous cation ion exchange resin(SQS-6). The ammonium ion adsorption band initially charged in the resin bed using 0.5 mol·dm−3 NH4OH solution and was eluted in a reverse breakthrough manner. The temperature of column was kept constant at 308K by temperature-controlled water through a jacket. A constant length of adsorbed bands were maintained throughout the elution. The enrichment of 14N at the front boundary region and 15N at the rear boundary region were confirmed. The attention was placed on enrichment high purity of 14N (99.99%). An enrichment factor of 14N was determined to be 0.026±0.001 and HETP was evaluated 0.18 cm. HETP of front boundary region is obviously lager than that of the rear part.