“TRU-SANEX”: A variation on the EURO-GANEX and i-SANEX processes for heterogeneous recycling of actinides Np-Cm

ABSTRACT

A novel separation process for recovering transuranic actinides has been tested in centrifugal contactors using a surrogate feed solution. This “TRU-SANEX” (transuranic element-selective actinide extraction) process uses solvent extraction between nitric acid and an organic phase containing 0.2 mol/L N,N,N′,N′-tetraoctyl diglycolamide with 0.5 mol/L N,N′-dimethyl-N,N′-dioctylhexylethoxy-malonamide to co-extract actinides and lanthanides followed by separate sections for plutonium–neptunium and americium–curium stripping. Overall, good performance was achieved with good recoveries of plutonium and americium in the products and only small amounts of cross-contamination between products. Decontamination factors for selected lanthanides in the americium–curium product ranged from ~40 to >1300.

KEYWORDS:

• Actinides
• flowsheet
• reprocessing
• solvent extraction
• TODGA

Acknowledgements

The University of Manchester are thanked for supplying a stock of the radioisotope ¹⁵²Eu. The authors gratefully acknowledge additional technical assistance from J. Holt, C. Campbell, K. Greenough and J. Brown.

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Energy and Climate Change under contract to NNL with additional support from NNL’s internally funded Strategic Research Programme (Aqueous Recycle project).

Supplemental Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Energy and Climate Change under contract to NNL with additional support from NNL’s internally funded Strategic Research Programme (Aqueous Recycle project).