US Patent Issued to TerraPower Isotopes on Sept. 23 for "Separation of actinium from an irradiated source material including thorium" (Washington Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,424,343, issued on Sept. 23, was assigned to TerraPower Isotopes LLC (Bellevue, Wash.).

"Separation of actinium from an irradiated source material including thorium" was invented by Ken Czerwinski (Seattle), Joshua C. Walter (Kirkland, Wash.) and Christopher Dunckley (Seattle).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "This disclosure describes methods for manufacturing a radioisotope of actinium from an irradiated source material that includes thorium. The method includes storing the source material in a vessel to allow at least some of the source material to decay into actinium. The containment vessel is then injected with supercritical carbon dio...