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Argonne updates: Fuel research and materials lab
Over the past two weeks, Argonne National Laboratory has announced numerous significant advancements being made by its staff to push forward nuclear fuels and materials research. Those announcements include the opening of the new Activated Materials Lab, the development of a new measurement technique, and the application of new artificial intelligence tools.
R. Berger, G. Koehly, C. Musikas, R. Pottier, R. Sontag
Nuclear Technology | Volume 8 | Number 4 | April 1970 | Pages 371-379
Chemical Processing | doi.org/10.13182/NT70-A28663
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Four slugs containing a sum total of 20.950 g of plutonium as Al-Pu 10% alloy have been irradiated in the EL-3 reactor to an integrated flux of 5 × 1021 n/cm2. After 2.5 years of cooling, the processing has been carried out in the hot cell “Petrus.” It consisted of (a) an alkaline and/or nitric dissolution of the “napkin-rings,” (b) a plutonium separation by two extraction cycles with trilaurylamine (5 vol%), each consisting of a plutonium extraction from a nitric medium and stripping by a solution containing sulfuric and nitric acids, (c) a transplutonium element separation by two HDEHP (8 vol %) extraction cycles, each consisting of an actinide-lanthanide extraction from an aluminum and lithium nitrate solution and a selective stripping of the transplutonium elements by a lithium nitrate solution containing diethylenetriaminopentaacetic ions (DTPA), and (d) an americium/curium separation by anion exchange resin using a nitric solution containing a complexing agent as eluent. From these runs 2.6 g of plutonium, 150 mg of americium, and 15 mg of curium have been recovered. The overall yields of plutonium and transplutonium elements were >97 and 98%, respectively, and the β - γ decontamination factors >105. In general, these results show clearly the effectiveness of solvent extraction in actinide reprocessing.