APPLICATION OF FAST SOLVENT-EXTRACTION PROCESSES TO STUDIES OF EXOTICNUCLIDES

Fast solvent extraction is a chemical separation method, which can be applied to study exotic nuclides. Since about 1970 the SISAK technique , which is an on-line method based on multi-stage solvent extraction s eparations, has been successfully used to investigate the nuclear prop erties of beta-decaying nuclides with half-lives down to about one sec ond. During the last decade it has become possible to produce transact inide elements in high enough yields to investigate their chemical pro perties on a one-atom-at-a-time scale. For this purpose it was necessa ry to improve and change the detection part of the SISAK system in ord er to be capable to detect spontaneously fissioning and alpha-decaying nuclides in a flowing organic solution. This technique is based on li quid scintillation counting with pulse-shape discrimination and pile-u p rejection.