Application of Inorganic Sorbents in Actinide Separations Processes

Abstract

Plant-scale applications of organic ion exchange resins, both anion and cation, in actinide recovery, separation, and purification processes are well established. Typical anion resin applications include tailend purification and concentration of plutonium and neptunium recovered by the Purex process and recovery and separation of 237Np and 238Pu from irradiated neptunium targets. (1) Cation exchange resins are used in 241Am recovery and purification processes and, also, in pressurized systems, to recover and purify kilogram amounts of 244Cm and 243Am. (2) For several good reasons - poor hydraulic behavior, unsatisfactory sorption kinetics, unavailability, in some cases, of commercial quantities, etc., - inorganic sorbents, in contrast to their organic counterparts, have not been used extensively in the backend of the nuclear fuel cycle. Also, such production-scale applications of inorganic exchangers as have been made have been concerned much more with sorption of particular fission products (e.g., 137Cs) than with separation or purification of