Extraction behaviour of actinides and lanthanides in TALSPEAK, TRUEX and NPEX processes of UREX+

Bench-scale studies to determine the extraction behavior of Pu, Np, Am and lanthanides with the organophosphorus extractants TBP, CMPO and HDEHP have been carried out. Based on the results obtained using actual spent nuclear fuel solutions, enhancements to the NPEX, TRUEX and TALSPEAK processes have been successful. In NPEX, >99.94% of both Np and Pu were separated from the fission products. In TRUEX, essentially complete recovery of the actinides (An) and the lanthanides (Ln) was achieved. In TALSPEAK, the complete separation of Pu, Np and Am from the lanthanides was demonstrated several times under various process conditions. The recovery of transuranics (TRU), including Am and Cm, is nearly 100% (below detection limit in the Ln stream), while the total recovery of Ln in the product stream exceeded 99.97%. (orig.)