Removing actinides using a chromatographic resin from High Activity Waste Solutions containing metallic impurities

At the Plutonium Recycling Facility of CEA Valduc, anion exchange is used for recovering plutonium from nitric acid solutions. Although this approach recovers more than 99,9 %, the trace amounts of actinides as americium remaining in the effluent require additional processing to reduce alpha activity under the maximum allowed for surface disposal. A new process has been developed to remove actinides from these effluents with a TRUspec resin. A pilot composed of an electrochemical reactor followed by a TRUSPEC column has been designed into a glove box. Laboratory scale studies and first results on the pilot have confirmed the interesting bibliography concerning this process. The reduction of iron is effective with a yield of 98-99% and no significant retention of metallic impurities has been observed during fixing time. Moreover, Pr and Ce used as surrogates for Pu and Am are totally recovered in the elution phases. Further work will be done to validate the previous results and to qualify the overall process with active solutions