Utilizing deep eutectic solvent for facile, selective and sustainable sequestration of plutonium

Abstract

In the recent surge of green and cheap energy for future generation; nuclear industry is going to play a pivotal role and reprocessing of nuclear fuel through safe and systematic approach is the key. In that direction recent literature has shown that there is lack of better and improved methods towards efficient extraction of highly radiotoxic and hazardous plutonium from nuclear waste. Herein, we have utilized a greener and cost effective indigenously synthesized deep eutectic solvent (DES) for the selective extraction of plutonium from (Am, Pu, U) waste. The maximum D value achieved for Pu was 67.42 at 5 mol L−1 HNO3 media and the equilibrium uptake capacity was found to be 107.28 ± 5 μg of Pu/g of C12DES. This was followed by solidified floating organic drop micro-extraction (SFODME) technique for its quantification. High radiation stability of this DES (upto 750 kGy) highlighted its great potential in nuclear fuel reprocessing. Several other reprocess parameters were studied and optimized such as DES volume, alkyl chain length attached to hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA), actinide concentration and speciation and its acidity to achieve best extraction of plutonium ion form the waste stream. Regeneration capability and reusability of the DES employing stripping agents gave encouraging results as 95% of Pu could be stripped in a single cycle using 1 M hydroxylamine hydrochloride as the stripping agent. The developed method was applied for recovery and quantification of Pu from real samples, viz. (U,Pu) Carbide fuel solution, radioactive research waste and synthetic dissolver solution. We believe this work is a way forward in resolving a variety of issues that exist in health physics and reprocessing laboratories of nuclear installation pertaining to selective and efficient extraction of Pu (IV).