Mutual separation of Am (III) and Eu (III) from nitric acid medium by succinimide modified zirconium phosphate

The partitioning and transmutation is viable method for the safe management of high level liquid waste generated from spent fuel reprocessing. The partitioning of minor actinides from High Level Liquid waste is achieved by the coextraction of trivalent metal ions of lanthanides and actinides followed by the separation of lanthanides from actinides. The separation of lanthanides from actinides is necessary, because lanthanides are neutron poisons which reduce the efficiency of transmutation of actinides. Separation of actinide from lanthanide is a challenging task due to similar chemical nature of actinides and lanthanides. The CHON based ligands which contain nitrogen donor atom exhibit selectivity towards actinides and facilitate the separation of lanthanides and actinides. During the partitioning process, the co extracted lanthanides and actinides were recovered using nitric acid in the range of 0.001 M to 0.1M. The objective of the present study is the separation of Am(III) from Eu(III) from nitric acid medium ranging from 0.001 M to 0.1 M. In this study, we have modified the layers of zirconium phosphate with succinimide and we have studied the extraction behavior of Am(III) and Eu(III) from nitric acid medium