A new concept for An(III)/Ln(III) separation using TOGDA extractant

Xavier Hérès (1) , Christian Sorel (1) , Clément Hill (1) , Pascal Baron (1)

1 DMRC - Département de recherche sur les procédés pour la mine et le recyclage du combustible

One of the different options investigated by the CEA Marcoule (in the framework of the EURATOM FP7 collaborative project ACSEPT) to separate trivalent minor actinides (Am(III) to Cf(III)) directly from PUREX raffinates by solvent extraction takes advantage of both (i) the high efficiency of the TODGA diglycolamide to extract trivalent 4f and 5f elements from nitrate/nitric aqueous solutions, and (ii) the selectivity of hydrophilic polyaminocarboxylic acids that complex trivalent 5f elements in buffered conditions better than 4f elements. The extraction system was optimized (both the formulations of the organic solvent and of the aqueous scrubbing and stripping solutions) to meet the requirements of an efficient flowsheet design allowing An(III) recovery yields greater than 99.9%, with high decontamination factors versus Ln(III) in only one SANEX cycle.

Domains: Chemical Sciences; Chemical engineering; Inorganic chemistry

Xavier Hérès, Christian Sorel, Clément Hill, Pascal Baron. A new concept for An(III)/Ln(III) separation using TOGDA extractant. IEMPT-10, Oct 2008, Mito, Japan. ⟨cea-03541284⟩