Abstract

The technical feasibility of partitioning concentrated nitric acid intermediate-level waste (ILWC) solutions from the Purex process into a small volume of high-level waste and a large volume of low-level waste using sorption methods is demonstrated for 1-ℓ batches. Cesium-134 and 137Cs are selectively separated with a decontamination factor (DF) greater than 1 × 105 in a newly developed “suspended-bed” column filled with the microporous inorganic exchanger ammonium molybdophosphate. The 125Sb and the actinides and lanthanides with a 3+ valence state are retained with DFs between 40 and 1000 on metal oxides of antimony and manganese and on an extraction column containing n-octyl(phenyl) N,N-diisobutyl carbamoyl methyl phosphine oxide, respectively. Ruthenium-106 and 60Co are removed in a column loaded with dimethyl glyoxime and have DFs greater than 20.The amount of secondary wastes arising from absorber materials is calculated to be 300 kg for a 350 t/yr reprocessing plant with an ILWC volume of ∼0.5 m3/t of heavy metal.

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