Separation of Rare Earths from Beryllium, Magnesium, Zirconium, Titanium, Uranium, and Stainless Steel

Certain rare earths possessing high thermal neutron absorption cross sections, when present in only trace quantities in metals used in nuclear technology, must be separated before a satisfactory spectrographic determination can be made. These rare earths are separated from beryllium and magnesium by precipitation as oxalates with added thorium as a carrier. The thorium is removed by an 8-quinolinol extraction leaving a residue suitable for spectrographic analysis. With zirconium, titanium, uranium, and stainless steel, a preliminary fluoride precipitation is made. At least 96% of the rare earths are consistently recovered.