Chemical Speciation of Americium, Curium and Selected Tetravalent Actinides in High Level Waste

Technical Report · Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/893279· OSTI ID:893279

Felmy, Andrew R

Large volumes of high-level waste (HLW) currently stored in tanks at DOE sites contain both sludges and supernatants. The sludges are composed of insoluble precipitates of actinides, radioactive fission products, and nonradioactive components. The supernatants are alkaline carbonate solutions, which can contain soluble actinides, fission products, metal ions, and high concentrations of major electrolytes including sodium hydroxide, nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, carbonate, aluminate, sulfate, and organic complexants. The organic complexants include several compounds that can form strong aqueous complexes with actinide species and fission products including ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), N-(2-hydroxyethyl)ethylenediaminetriacetic acid (HEDTA), nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA), iminodiacetic acid (IDA), citrate, glycolate, gluconate, and degradation products, formate and oxalate.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• OSTI ID: 893279
• Report Number(s): EMSP-90237-2005; R&D Project: EMSP 90237; TRN: US0605971
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
ACTINIDES
AMERICIUM
CARBONATES
CURIUM
EDTA
ELECTROLYTES
FISSION PRODUCTS
FORMATES
HEDTA
NTA
SLUDGES
SODIUM HYDROXIDES
TANKS
WASTES