Modified PUREX process raffinate

For future advanced nuclear systems, minor actinides are considered more as a resource to be recycled and transmuted than to be disposed of directly into a nuclear repository. A key feature of advanced fuel cycles technologies would be to separate M A and ultimately americium from curium. Several countries are investigating the separation of MA from a PUREX/COEX based process raffinate or a modified PUREX process raffinate using new extractant molecules with two potential options for actinide separations ... 

Simplified Recovery of Minor Actinides from PUREX or Modified PUREX Process Raffinate... 

The flowsheet of the UREX process, developed in the United States, includes the following extraction cycles (1) separation of uranium and technetium, (2) separation of plutonium, (3) separation of cesium and strontium, (4) separation of MAs and Rare Earth Elements (REE), and (5) group separation of MA from REE metals.9,10 Flowsheet development in Europe11 includes a modified PUREX process and, after that, the DIAMEX process for separation of MAs and lanthanides, the SANEX process for separation of MAs from lanthanides, and a special cycle for Am/Cm separation. Cesium and strontium will be in the raffinate of the DIAMEX process, and this raffinate will be vitrified, or cesium can be preliminarily extracted.12... 

Solvent Extraction. A modified, one-cycle PUREX process is used at Rocky Flats to recover plutonium from miscellaneous Pu-U residues (11). The process utilizes the extraction of uranium (VI) into tributyl phosphate (TBP), leaving plutonium (III) in the raffinate. The plutonium is then sent to ion exchange for... 

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