Extraction Chromatographic Separation of Minor Actinides from PUREX High-Level Wastes Using CMPO

An extraction chromatographic technique using octyl(phenyl)-N,N-diisobutylcarbamoylmethylphosphine oxide (CMPO) adsorbed on chromosorb-102 (CAC) has been tested as an alternative to the TRUEXsolvent extraction process, where CMPO has been used as the extracting agent to recover minor actinides from high-activity waste (HAW) solutions of PUREX origin. The batchwise uptake behavior of U(VI), Pu(IV), Am(III), Eu(III), Zr(IV), Fe(III), Ru(III), and from a nitric acid medium by CAC has been studied. The uptake of actinides and lanthanides are higher than those of other fission products and inert materials. The batchwise loading experiments in the presence of Nd(III)/U(VI) have shown that at lower concentrations of these metal ions, the uptake of Pu(IV), U(VI), and Am(III) are reasonably high. Studies on loading of Nd(III), U(VI), and Pu(IV) on a column containing 1.7 g of CAC have shown that Nd(III) (30 mg) and U(VI) (90 mg) could be loaded, while Pu(IV) (∼0.6 mg) was loaded on a small column containing 100 mg of CAC without any breakthrough. Further, a synthetic HAW solution as such and the actual PUREX HAW solution, after depleting the uranium content by a 30% tributyl-phosphate contact, were loaded on a CAC column. The effluents did not contain any alpha activity above the background level. The activities could subsequently be eluted with 0.04 M HNO₃ (americium and rare earths), 0.01M oxalic acid (plutonium), and 0.25 M Na₂CO₃ [U(VI)]. The recoveries of these metal ions were found to be >99%.