Plutonium and americium sorption from an EDTA complex by manganese oxide

Conference · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1984

OSTI ID:6119152

Kasper, R B; Delegard, C H

Studies at Oak Ridge National Laboratory indicate that trace quantities of certain actinide elements are migrating from waste disposal trenches in part as Ethylenediaminetetraacetic Acid (EDTA) complexes. Some of the strongest actinide complexes are formed by EDTA and related chelating agents. To some extent, the actinides are sorbed by the soil and a positive correlation is observed between the concentration of manganese on the surface of the soil particles and the concentration of the sorbed actinides. While manganese oxides have long been recognized as important scavengers of trace metals in the environment, sorption of an actinide element from a strong chelated complex has not been previously indicated. Batch experiments were performed to evaluate the sorption of a plutonium-EDTA complex by manganese oxide. The manganese oxide was prepared as an amorphous coating on synthetic fibers following the procedure of Moore. The prepared fiber was contacted by several nitrate solutions containing different concentrations of calcium, sodium, and EDTA to evaluate the effect of competing cations, ionic strength of solution, and concentration of complexing agent. All solutions were spiked with approximately 10/sup -7/ molar of /sup 238/Pu. For all solutions, generally greater than 95% of the plutonium was sorbed by the manganese oxide-coated fibers after contact times of 10 minutes. In all cases using the manganese oxide-coated fibers, after 100 minutes of contact time, greater than 99% of the plutonium was removed from solution. For one experiment using a solution spiked with approximately 10/sup -7/ molar of /sup 241/Am, sorption of americium was found to be significantly slower than sorption of plutonium. Greater than 99% of the americium was removed from the solution only after approximately 10,000 minutes. Although the mechanism has not been established, manganese oxide was shown to sorb plutonium and americium from, or as, an EDTA complex. 22 references, 5 figures.

• Research Organization: Rockwell International Corp., Richland, WA (USA). Rockwell Hanford Operations
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-77RL01030
• OSTI ID: 6119152
• Report Number(s): RHO-RE-SA-26P; CONF-841145-1; ON: DE85006084
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400105* -- Separation Procedures
510301 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport-- Soil-- (-1987)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACTINIDE ISOTOPES
ACTINIDE NUCLEI
ACTINIDES
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
AMERICIUM 241
AMERICIUM ISOTOPES
AMINO ACIDS
CARBOXYLIC ACIDS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHELATING AGENTS
COMPLEXES
DATA
EDTA
ELEMENTS
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HEAVY NUCLEI
INFORMATION
ISOTOPES
MANGANESE COMPOUNDS
MANGANESE OXIDES
METALS
NUCLEI
NUMERICAL DATA
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
ORGANIC ACIDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLUTONIUM 238
PLUTONIUM ISOTOPES
RADIOISOTOPES
SORPTION
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES