Hanford Purex plant

G. J. Raab md co-workers. Operating Experience Using Silver Reactors for Radioiodine Removal in the Hanford Purex Plant, ARH-SA-67, Atimtic Richfield Hmford Co., Richlmd, Wash., June 1970. 

Irradiated Fuel A historically important and continuing mission at the Hanford site is to chemically process irradiated reactor fuel to recover and purify weapons-grade plutonium. Over the last 40 years, or so, several processes and plants— Bismuth Phosphate, REDOX, and PUREX—have been operated to accomplish this mission. Presently, only the Hanford PUREX Plant is operational, and although it has not been operated since the fall of 1972, it is scheduled to start up in the early 1980 s to process stored and currently produced Hanford -Reactor fuel. Of nine plutonium-production reactors built at the Hanford site, only the N-Reactor is still operating. 

Walser, R. L., "The Hanford Purex Plant Experience with Reductants," USAEC Report ARH-SA-69, Atlantic Richfield Hanford Co., Richland, WA, 1970. 

ISO-440 RD Process Performance of the First Production Campaign at the Hanford Purex Plant, Mar. 11, 1968. 

Di(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (HDEHP) is an extractant molecule used for An(III)/Ln(III) separation. Used in TALSPEAK-type processes in a mixture with TBP, or in the DIAMEX-SANEX process in a mixture with a malonamide (154-157), it has also been proposed, in a mixture with TBP, to remove strontium from PUREX acid waste solution in the Hanford B plant (158). Therefore, numerous studies have focussed on the radiolytic degradation of HDEHP and its effects on the extraction of Sr(II), lanthanides(III), and actinides(III) (10, 158-163). 

Figure 1.17 Purex plant of U.S. Department of Energy, Hanford, Washington. (Courtesy of Atlantic Richfield Hanford Company.)...

Irish, E. R. Description of Purex Plant Process, USAEC Report HW-60116, Hanford Atomic Products Operation, May 1959. 

The Atlantic Richfield Hanford Co. (ARHCO) operates the Purex Plant at Hanford for the USAEC, and has responsibility for design, construction, and operation of the Waste Packaging Plant. The Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL, operated for the USAEC by Battelle Memorial Institute) has responsibility for developing the technology required for the packaging plant. 

Purex [Plutonium and uranium recovery by extraction] A process for the solvent extraction of plutonium from solutions of uranium and fission products, obtained by dissolving spent nuclear fuel elements in nitric acid. The solvent is tri- -butyl phosphate (TBP) in kerosene. First operated by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission at its Savannah River plant, SC, in 1954 and at Hanford, WA, in 1956. Now in operation, with modifications, in several countries. Sites include Savannah River (SC), Cap de la Hague (France), Marcoule (France), Sellafield (England), Karlsruhe (Germany), and Trombay (India). See also Recuplex. 

U.S. plants. The principal U.S. reprocessing plants are listed in Table 10.3, together with their main process features. All use some form of the Purex process. In 1979, the only ones operating were the Savannah River and Idaho plants of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The Hanford plant had been used primarily for recovery of plutonium and uranium from irradiated natural uranium, but was versatile and had been used, for example, for Thorex... 

Variants of the Purex (Pu-U Reduction Extraction) process are the most widely used plutonium-reprocessing schemes worldwide. Purex on the industrial scale began at the US Savannah River Plant in 1954 and replaced the Redox process at the Hanford works in 1956 every country that has produced significant quantities of plutonium has exploited the method. In Purex, the organic extractant is tributyl phosphate (TBP). In addition to optimum com-plexation properties for nuclear analytes of interest, TBP has a low aqueous solubility and is chemically and radiolytically stable. The density of TBP (0.98 g/cm ) is so close to that of water that it is common to dilute it in a lower density solvent. It is completely miscible with common organic solvents (e.g., kerosene, n-dodecane) at ordinary temperatures. 

I plumes existing at the Hanford site are largely confined to the 200 Areas where it was discharged to subsurface drains. The highest concentrations observed onsite are downgradient from the PUREX and REDOX Plants in the 200-East and 200-West Areas, respectively. The plume at the latter area is coincident with... 

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