Production and separation of 7Be for use in an ion source

Beryllium-7 (⁷Be) was created by proton irradiation of natural (^natB) and enriched (¹⁰B) boron targets. The targets were dissolved in nitric acid, and the ⁷Be was separated from the bulk boron target material by cation-exchange chromatography. An average recovery of (99.4 ± 3.7)% was obtained for 6 separations. The purified ⁷Be sample was placed into a batch-mode ion source to create a ⁷Be beam that was delivered at an average rate of 5 × 10⁵ pps to end users at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory.