Recovery of fission product rare earth sulfates from Purex 1WW

Technical Report · Wed May 10 04:00:00 EDT 1961

OSTI ID:5491792

Wheelwright, E J; Swift, W H

Cerium-144 and promethium-147, accompanied by rare earths resulting from fission or decay can be removed from Purex 1WW in >90% yield as an insoluble, crystalline sodium-rare earth double sulfate. Precipitation is initiated by a one-to-three hour equilibration at 90/sup 0/C and centrifugation at 90/sup 0/C to take advantage of the lower solubility of the double sulfate salt at a higher temperature. The sulfate concentration should be one molar and the solution pH at the time of precipitation should be 0.5 to 1.5. The addition of tartrate ion to complex the iron allows the use of a higher pH and sulfate concentration, gives a more complete separation from iron, and a quantitative recovery of the rare earths. The double sulfate precipitate can be dissolved in dilute nitric acid or converted to the carbonate and then dissolved to yield a solution for further processing. The double sulfate precipitation of the rare earths, with tartrate added, gives a good separation from impurities. One-cycle decontamination factors of 150 for Zr-Nb and 1100 for Ru-Rh have been achieved in laboratory tests. Tests in the Purex head-end equipment with up to two megacurie batches of cerium have corroborated the laboratory results. Decontamination factors of 70 for iron, 10 for zirconium, 20 for niobium and 25 for ruthenium have been obtained. It was found wise to limit the batch size because of heat generated by the cerium-144. Otherwise the intense decay heat leads to partial calcination in the centrifuge and to difficulty in redissolution.

• Research Organization: General Electric Co., Richland, WA (USA). Hanford Atomic Products Operation
• OSTI ID: 5491792
• Report Number(s): HW-63051
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052001* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Processing
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CARBOXYLIC ACID SALTS
CENTRIFUGATION
CERIUM 144
CERIUM ISOTOPES
CLEANING
DAYS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
DECONTAMINATION
ELEMENTS
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
IMPURITIES
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
IRON
ISOTOPES
MANAGEMENT
MEDIUM TEMPERATURE
METALS
NIOBIUM
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PH VALUE
PLATINUM METALS
PRECIPITATION
PROCESSING
PROMETHIUM 147
PROMETHIUM ISOTOPES
PUREX PROCESS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
RADIOISOTOPES
RARE EARTH COMPOUNDS
RARE EARTH ISOTOPES
RARE EARTH NUCLEI
REPROCESSING
RHODIUM
RUTHENIUM
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SULFATES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
TARTRATES
TIME DEPENDENCE
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
ZIRCONIUM