Immobilization of the high-level nuclear waste stored at the Hanford Reservation has been complicated by the presence of soluble, lower-valent technetium species. Previous work by Schroeder and Blanchard has shown that these species cannot be removed by ion-exchange and are difficult to oxidize.The Tc-K edge XANES spectra of the species in Tanks SY-101 and SY-103 were reported by Blanchard, but they could not be assigned to any known technetium complex. We report that the XANES spectra are most likely those of Tc(I) carbonyl species, especially fac-Tc(CO) 3 (gluconate) 2-. This is further supported by EXAFS and 9 9 Tc-NMR studies in nonradioactive simulants of these tank wastes.2 KEYWORDS Technetium, Hanford, high level waste, nuclear waste BRIEFS The soluble technetium species that have caused problems for the remediation of high level nuclear waste at Hanford are most likely Tc(I) carbonyl complexes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.