Publication

Abstract : Extraction chramatagraphic technique using CMPO absorbed on chromosorb-102 (CAC) has been developed as a potential alternative to the TRUEX process, where CMPO has been deployed as the extracting agent to recover minor actinides from the high active waste solution of Pure: origin. In this connection, the batch-wise uptake behaviour of U(VI), Pu(VI), Am(III), Eu(III), ZrIV), FeIII, RuIII) and TcO+ from nitric acid medium by CAC has been studied. The uptake of actinides and lanthanides are higher than those of other fission products and inert materials. The batch wise loading experiments in presence of Nd(III) / UVI) have shown that at lower concentration of these metal ions, the uptake of PU(IV), U(VI) and Am(III) are reasonably high. Studies on loading of Nd(III), UVI and PuIV on a column containing 1.7 g CAC have shown that Nd(III) (30 mg) and UVI (90 mg) could be loaded, while Pu(IV) (**• 0.6 mg) was loaded on a small column containing 100 mg CAC without any breakthrough. Further, a synthetic HAW solution and the actual Purex HAW solution were loaded on a CAC column. The effluents did not contain any alpha activity above the back ground level. The activities could subsequently be eluted with 0.04 M HN03 (Am RE), 0.01 M oxalic acid (Pu) and 0.25 M Na2CO3 solution (U(VD). The recoveries of these metal ions were found to be 99%. The eluted Am and rare earth fraction is an important source for Pm. This process is amenable for further scaling up.