Extraction chromatographic separation of minor actinides from PUREX high-level wastes using CMPO
- Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay (India)
An extraction chromatographic technique using octyl(phenyl)-N,N-diisobutylcarbamoylmethylphosphine oxide (CMPO) adsorbed on chromosorb-102 (CAC) has been tested as an alternative to the TRUEX solvent extraction process, where CMPO has been used as the extracting agent to recover minor actinides from high-activity waste (HAW) solutions of PUREX origin. The batchwise uptake behavior of U(VI), Pu(IV), Am(III), Eu(III), Zr(IV), Fe(III), Ru(III), and TcO{sub 4}{sup {minus}} from a nitric acid medium by CAC has been studied. The uptake of actinides and lanthanides are higher than those of other fission products and inert materials. The batchwise loading experiments in the presence of Nd(III)/U(VI) have shown that at lower concentrations of these metal ions, the uptake of Pu(IV), U(VI), and Am(III) are reasonably high. Studies on loading of Nd(III), U(VI), and Pu(IV) on a column containing 1.7 g of CAC have shown that Nd(III) (30 mg) and U(VI) (90 mg) could be loaded, while Pu(IV) ({approximately}0.6) was loaded on a small column containing 100 mg of CAC without any break-through. Further, a synthetic HAW solution as such and the actual PUREX HAW solution, after depleting the uranium content by a 30% tributyl-phosphate contact, were loaded on a CAC column. The effluents did not contain any alpha activity above the background level. The activities could subsequently be eluted with 0.0.4 M HNO{sub 3} (americium and rare earths), 0.01 M oxalic acid (plutonium), and 0.25 M Na{sub 2}CO{sub 3} [U(VI)]. The recoveries of these metal ions were found to be >99%.
- OSTI ID:
- 109969
- Journal Information:
- Nuclear Technology, Vol. 109, Issue 2; Other Information: PBD: Feb 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
ACTINIDES
EXTRACTION CHROMATOGRAPHY
URANIUM IONS
PLUTONIUM IONS
AMERICIUM IONS
EUROPIUM IONS
ZIRCONIUM IONS
IRON IONS
RUTHENIUM IONS
TECHNETIUM OXIDES
NEODYMIUM IONS
ACTIVITY LEVELS
NITRIC ACID
SODIUM CARBONATES
FISSION PRODUCTS
RARE EARTHS