Selective Removal of Uranium from High‐Level Waste Solution Employing Tri‐n‐Butyl Phosphate as the Extractant

Abstract

Conditions for the selective removal of uranium from high‐level waste solution have been optimized using tri‐n‐butyl phosphate (TBP) as the extractant. Various aqueous soluble reducing agents viz. hydroxylamine nitrate (HAN), hydrazine nitrate (HN), and diethyl hydroxylamine nitrate (DEHAN) as well as n‐dodecane soluble reductant viz. tert‐butyl hydroquinone (TBH) have been evaluated for the separation of U with respect to Pu and Np. The combination of DEHAN and TBH has been found to be most promising for the selective extraction of U from HLW. Extraction data of a few other metal ions expected to be present in high‐level waste solutions viz. Am(III), Eu(III), Zr(IV), Sr(II), and Cs(I) are also obtained.

Keywords:

• Uraniun
• high‐level waste solution
• tri‐n‐butyl phosphate