Demonstration of the TRUEX process for partitioning of actinides from actual ICPP tank waste using centrifugal contactors in a shielded cell facility
TRUEX is being evaluated at Idaho Chemical Processing Plant (ICPP) for separating actinides from acidic radioactive waste stored at ICPP; efforts have culminated in a recent demonstration with actual tank waste. A continuous countercurrent flowsheet test was successfully completed at ICPP using waste from tank WM-183. This demonstration was performed using 24 states of 2-cm dia centrifugal contactors in the shielded hot cell at the ICPP Remote Analytical Laboratory. The flowsheet had 8 extraction stages, 5 scrub stages, 6 strip stages, 3 solvent wash stages, and 2 acid rinse stages. A centrifugal contactor stage in the scrub section was not working during testing, and the scrub feed (aqueous) solution followed the solvent into the strip section, eliminating the scrub section in the flowsheet. An overall removal efficiency of 99.97% was obtained for the actinides, reducing the activity from 457 nCi/g in the feed to 0.12 nCi/g in the aqueous raffinate, well below the NRC Class A LLW requirement of 10 nCi/g for non-TRU waste.The 0.04 M HEDPA strip section back-extracted 99.9998% of the actinide from the TRUEX solvent. Removal efficiencies of >99. 90, 99.96, 99.98, >98.89, 93.3, and 89% were obtained for {sup 241}Am, {sup 238}Pu, {sup 239}Pu, {sup 235}U, {sup 238}U, and {sup 99}Tc. Fe was partially extracted by the TRUEX solvent, resulting in 23% of the Fe exiting in the strip product. Hg was also extracted by the TRUEX solvent (73%) and stripped from the solvent in the 0.25 M Na2CO3 wash section. Only 1.4% of the Hg exited with the high activity waste strip product.
- Research Organization:
- Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies Co., Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC07-94ID13223
- OSTI ID:
- 421933
- Report Number(s):
- INEL-96/0353; ON: DE97050826; TRN: 97:002348
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Sep 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
TRUEX flowsheet development as applied to ICPP sodium-bearing waste using centrifugal contactors
CMP flowsheet development for the separation of actinides from ICPP sodium-bearing waste using centrifugal contactors