Ion exchange and adsorption in nuclear chemical engineering

The nuclear industry involves a number of operations. Uranium ore must first be mined and the uranium recovered from the ore, purified, and concentrated. After the uranium has been enriched and fabricated into fuel elements, it is placed in nuclear reactors where it produces energy, fission products, and transmutation products. Finally, if the fuel cycle is completed, the uranium and useful transmutation products are recovered and separated from each other as well as from the fission products. The uranium may be recycled or used elsewhere, while most of the fission products become waste. Ion exchange finds use in nearly every part of the nuclear fuel cycle; these uses are the subject of this paper