Studies on the recovery of plutonium and americium from calcium fluoride matrix

Studies on the extraction of plutonium and americium in calcium fluoride matrix are carried out using tri n-butyl phosphate (TBP) in n-dodecane. In four contacts, almost all the plutonium and americium are extracted by 40% TBP at 3:1 O/A ratio. Calcium also got extracted into the organic phase along with americium due to the low acidity and high salt content of the aqueous phase. Scrubbing/stripping studies are carried out using various reagents viz. nitric acid, oxalic acid, hydroxylamine nitrate (HAN) etc. and from the results, it is found that 0.2M HAN in 0.5M HNO3 is the best for quantitative recovery of plutonium whereas americium and calcium can be stripped with HNO3 alone. (author)