Recovery of plutonium from sodium fluoride and alumina traps loaded with plutonium tetrafluoride

Technical Report · Wed Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1978

OSTI ID:6565898

Gray, L W; Ervin, G; McGahee, N W

Methods were developed to recover plutonium sorbed from process air in traps containing sodium fluoride and alumina pellets. Two-level factorial designs (2/sup 4/ for NaF pellets, and 2/sup 3/ for alumina pellets) were chosen to direct the initial experiments. The four factors affecting recovery of plutonium as Pu(IV) from NaF pellets were acid concentration, aluminum nitrate concentration, ratio of acidic solution volume to weight of dissolved solids, and length of refluxing time. For the alumina pellets, the three factors were acid concentration, ratio of acidic solution volume to weight of dissolved solids, and filterability of the generated solutions. The recovery methods were designed to process traps containing 1 to 20 kg of pellets that could have as much as 5 wt % of plutonium sorbed onto the pellet surfaces.

• Research Organization: Savannah River Ecology Lab., Aiken, SC (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-09-0001
• OSTI ID: 6565898
• Report Number(s): DP-1502
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

050800 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Spent Fuels Reprocessing
052001* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Processing
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
ACTINIDE COMPOUNDS
ACTINIDES
ADSORBENTS
ADSORPTION
AIR
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
ALUMINIUM OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
ELEMENTS
FLUIDS
FLUORIDES
FLUORINE COMPOUNDS
GASEOUS WASTES
GASES
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
MANAGEMENT
METALS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLUTONIUM
PLUTONIUM COMPOUNDS
PLUTONIUM FLUORIDES
PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
RECOVERY
SODIUM COMPOUNDS
SODIUM FLUORIDES
SORPTION
TRANSURANIUM COMPOUNDS
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WASTES