Wet processing of palladium for use in the tritium facility at Westinghouse, Savannah River, SC. Preparation of palladium using the Mound Muddy Water process

Palladium used at Savannah River for tritium storage is currently obtained from a commercial source. In order to better understand the processes involved in preparing this material, Savannah River is supporting investigations into the chemical reactions used to synthesize this material and into the conditions necessary to produce palladium powder that meets their specifications. This better understanding may help to guarantee a continued reliable source for this material in the future. As part of this evaluation, a work-for-others contract between Westinghouse Savannah River Company and the Ames Laboratory Metallurgy and Ceramics Program was initiated. During FY98, the process for producing palladium powder developed in 1986 by Dan Grove of Mound Applied Technologies (USDOE) was studied to understand the processing conditions that lead to changes in morphology in the final product. This report details the results of this study of the Mound Muddy Water process, along with the results of a round-robin analysis of well-characterized palladium samples that was performed by Savannah River and Ames Laboratory. The Mound Muddy Water process is comprised of three basic wet chemical processes, palladium dissolution, neutralization, and precipitation, with a number of filtration steps to remove unwanted impurity precipitates