Purification of Uranium(vi) From Impurities of Fission Product Surrogates by Solvent Extraction in the Carbex Process

Abstract

The article presents the results on the extraction and purification of uranium(VI) from impurities of surrogates of some fission products (Cr(III), Mn(IV), Cu(II), Sr(II), Cs, Sb(V), Mo(VI), Ba(II), La(III), Ce(IV), Sm(III), Eu(III), Re(V), Al(III), Y(III), Nd(III)) and Na from aqueous solutions of sodium carbonate and ammonium carbonate by solvent extraction using methyltrioctylammonium carbonate. The values of uranium purification factors were 10 3 -10 6 . Based on the carried out studies, a scheme of solvent extraction reprocessing of multicomponent carbonate solutions containing fission product surrogates was developed and optimized. This scheme showed the high efficiency of the solvent extraction technique for fractionating the fission products in the CARBEX process.