Evaluation of extractants and chelating resins in polishing actinide-contaminated waste streams
At the Los Alamos National Laboratory Plutonium Facility, anion exchange is used for recovering plutonium from nitric acid solutions. Although this approach recovers >99%, the trace amounts of plutonium and other actinides remaining in the effluent require additional processing. We are doing research to develop a secondary unit operation that can directly polish the effluent so that actinide levels are reduced to below the maximum allowed for facility discharge. We selected solvent extraction, the only unit operation that can meet the stringent process requirements imposed; several carbonyl and phosphoryl extractants were evaluated and their performance characterized. We also investigated various engineering approaches for solvent extraction; the most promising was a chelating resin loaded with extractant. Our research now focuses on the synthesis of malonamides, and our goal is to bond these extractants to a resin matrix.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 5496828
- Report Number(s):
- LA-11978-MS; ON: DE92011491
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
CHELATING AGENTS
EVALUATION
PLUTONIUM
RECOVERY
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
ACTINIDES
ALPHA-BEARING WASTES
AMIDES
ION EXCHANGE
NITRIC ACID
ELEMENTS
EXTRACTION
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INORGANIC ACIDS
MATERIALS
METALS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
SEPARATION PROCESSES
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
WASTES
052001* - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Processing