Removal of Sr and Hg from acidic liquid radioactive waste by solvent extraction with the SREX process

Conference · Wed Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 1999

OSTI ID:23142096

Wood, Donald J.; Law, Jack D.; Herbst, R. Scott; Todd, Terry A. ^[1]

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1. INEEL, P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, Idaho 83415 (United States)

Recent development efforts in the removal of radioactive strontium from acidic radioactive waste at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) have included the demonstration of a countercurrent processing flowsheet using simulated radioactive wastes. The solvent system, referred to as the SREX solvent, is composed of 0.15 M 4',4'(5') di-(t-butylcyclo-hexo)-18-crown-6 and 1.5 M tributyl phosphate in a paraffinic hydrocarbon diluent. The processing flowsheet employed in this demonstration is a modification of previously reported flowsheets and incorporates a solvent scrubbing procedure which reduces the mass of potassium which is coextracted with the radioactive strontium product. This demonstration has been performed using 2 cm centrifugal contactors manufactured by Argonne National Laboratory. The flowsheet was designed to accomplish the complete (>99.99%) removal of Sr from the simulated feed solution and to minimize the amount of K in the strip product streams. The extraction and stripping behavior of Pb, Hg, Na, and other metals has been studied. The data obtained from this experiment are being utilized to design a flowsheet for the treatment of actual waste in combination with other radionuclide partitioning operations in an integrated demonstration of waste treatment technologies at the INEEL.

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 23142096
• Resource Relation: Conference: Global'99: International Conference on Future Nuclear Systems - Nuclear Technology - Bridging the Millennia, Las Vegas, NV (United States), 29 Aug - 3 Sep 1999; Other Information: Country of input: France; 5 refs.; available from American Nuclear Society - ANS, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (US)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY
RADIOCHEMISTRY AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CROWN ETHERS
DESIGN
EXTRACTION APPARATUSES
HYDROCARBONS
LIQUIDS
POTASSIUM
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOISOTOPES
SCRUBBING
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
SOLVENTS
STRONTIUM
TBP