US regulations 40 CFR 61, 40 CFR 190, and 10 CFR 20 govern release limits for volatile radionuclides contained in the gaseous effluents of used nuclear fuel (UNF) reprocessing facilities. Of the four volatile radionuclides that are restricted by the release limits ( 3 H, 14 C, 85 Kr, and 129 I) 129 I will require the greatest degree of abatement. Previous studies have shown that overall plant decontamination factor (DF) for 129 I must, at minimum, exceed 1,000 to meet regulatory requirements. Iodine-containing off-gas will be present in the dissolver off-gas, the cell off-gas, the vessel off-gas (VOG), the waste off-gas, and the shear off-gas. The VOG will most likely contain 1%-5% of the total iodine at part per billion (ppb) concentrations. A number of studies have examined iodine abatement from the dissolver off-gas, which contains greater than 95% of the iodine inventory of the plant, but very few have examined the recovery of iodine from the VOG stream.
The ability to perform rapid separations in a post nuclear weapon detonation scenario is an important aspect of national security. In the past, separations of fission products have been performed using solvent extraction, precipitation, etc. The focus of this work is to explore the feasibility of using thermochromatography, a technique largely employed in superheavy element chemistry, to expedite the separation of fission products from fuel components. A series of fission product complexes were synthesized and the thermodynamic parameters were measured using TGA/DSC methods. Once measured, these parameters were used to predict their retention times using thermochromatography.
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