Purex high-level waste, flowsheet

Already for some years (1991-93) studies have been made for procedures to separate the long-lived actinides from the fission products in the high-level wastes of the PUREX process. The aim of friis work was to develop a flowsheet for a solvent extraction process and the main finding of the last years was that all extractants containing only sulphur are not suitable for the separation of transplutonides (III) from lanthanides (ill). 

The above information was used to develop conceptual flowsheets for the extraction of all of the actinides (U, Np, Pu, Am, and Cm) from high-level liquid waste from PUREX processing using 0.4 M 0fuel using 0.8 M DHDECMP in DEB. In both flowsheets, no oxidation state of Pu is necessary since the III, IV, and VI state extract into the organic phase. 

The CTH actinide separation process was developed as a possible means to reduce the expected long term dose to man from a geologic repository containing solidified radioactive waste from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel The distribution data for the elements present in significant amounts in the high level liquid waste (HLLW) from a Purex plant, the general principles and the flowsheet have been described in detail elsewhere A... 

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