Pyrometallurgical Partitioning of Uranium and Transuranic Elements from Rare Earth Elements by Electrorefining and Reductive Extraction

• Published in: Journal of nuclear science and technology 2001-01, Vol.38 (1), p.36
• Main Authors: UOZUMI, Koichi, KINOSHITA, Kensuke, INOUE, Tadashi, FUSSELMAN, S.P, GRIMMETT, D.L, ROY, J.J, STORVICK, T.S, KRUEGER, C.L, NABELEK, C.R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0022-3131; 1881-1248
• DOI: 10.3327/jnst.38.36

High-level liquid waste generated from PUREX reprocessing contains a small amount of transuranic elements, such as Np, Pu, Am, and Cm, with long-lived radioactivities. A pyrometallurgical partitioning process is being developed to recover transuranic elements from such waste. Small amounts of U contained in the high-level liquid waste are also recovered in the process. A key issue for developing the process is effective separation of U and the transuranic elements from the rare-earth elements, because the two elemental groups are chemically analogous. A series of process tests were carried out in the present study to demonstrate that a combination of electrorefining and reductive extraction is useful for separating U and transuranic elements from the rare-earth elements. The results indicate that 99% of U and each transuranic element is recovered by the combination process as a product, and that the quantity of rare-earth elements contained in the product is smaller than the transuranic elements by weight. The overall mass balance of U and transuranic elements in the system ranged within the experimental errors assigned to sampling and analysis.