A counter current experiment for the separation of trivalent actinides and lanthanides by the SETFICS process
- Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan)
The STFICS process, a variation of TRUEX process, was developed for the recovery of Am and Cm from acidic waste solution and the separation of actinides(III) and light lanthanides. The process uses the general TRUEX solvent as the extracting reagent and a DTPA-sodium nitrate solution for selective stripping of actinides(III). The basic flow sheet is composed of four steps: extraction-scrubbing; acid stripping; actinide(III) stripping; and lanthanide stripping. To demonstrate the usefulness of the SETFICS process, a counter current experiment was conducted using a real TRUEX product solution. Americium and curium were successfully recovered with a solution of 0.05 M DTPA-4 M NaNO{sub 3} (pH 2.0). Although the actinide(III) product solution contained Sm and Eu, the decontamination factor of {sup 144}Ce/{sup 241}Am was 72, and most of the light lanthanides, specifically La, Ce, Pr, Nd, were removed. At least 80% of the lanthanides were separated from the Am and Cm end products. In order to minimize the acidity in the actinide(III) stripping step, the nitric acid which extracted with the trivalent metals was previously removed with a solution of 0.5 M NaNO{sub 3} (pH 2.0) in the acid stripping step.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 346982
- Journal Information:
- Solvent Extraction and Ion Exchange, Vol. 16, Issue 6; Other Information: PBD: Nov 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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