Extraction of Cesium, Strontium, and Stable Simulated HLW Components with Substituted Crown Ethers in New Fluorinated Diluents

ABSTRACT

The extraction of cesium, strontium, and a number of stable components of simulated high-level waste solutions from nitric acid media with solutions of crown ether derivatives in new fluorinated diluents was studied. Based on the data on the solubility of the extractants into the aqueous phase and the physicochemical properties of the diluents used, the most promising extraction systems were chosen: crown ethers 4,4‘(5’)-di-tert-butyldibenzo-18-crown-6 (L1) and 4,4‘(5’)-di-tert-butyldicyclohexyl-18-crown-6 (L2) in bis(2,2,3,3-tetrafluoropropyl) carbonate (BK-1) and bis(2,2,3,3-tetrafluoropropoxy)methane (FN-1). For these systems, the extraction of a number of stable components and their subsequent stripping with water and solutions of chelating agents were studied. Lead was found to be co-extracted to the greatest extent. To a lesser extent, barium and calcium cations are co-extracted with strontium, and rubidium and potassium cations with cesium. Lead, barium, and silver are the most difficult to strip; however, the problem of lead stripping can be solved by using DTPA or citric acid solutions neutralized with ammonia to weakly alkaline (pH 8) media.

KEYWORDS:

• Extraction
• crown ethers
• fluorinated diluents
• cesium
• strontium
• HLW components

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/07366299.2022.2110686

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Project № 20-13-00143). The authors would like to thank Prof. V. K. Karandashev and Ph.D. V. A. Khvostikov from the Institute for Problems of Microelectronics Technology and High-Purity Materials of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IPTM RAS) for help in taking and interpreting the mass spectra.