Extraction studies of Europium (III) in PUREX solvent

Europium is one of the troublesome fission products which would affect the performance of the PUREX process in terms of fission product activity and metallic impurity in the final product. Hence, to evaluate the effect of the presence of Eu (III) on the quality of the PUREX process product stream, the solvent extraction behaviour of Eu (III) in the PUREX solvent under typical process conditions was evaluated. As the PUREX solvent is bound to undergo degradation at a rapid rate during the reprocessing of spent FBR fuel due to the higher content of fission product activity and the higher concentration of the acid during processing, studies were carried out to understand the effect of DBP, major degradation product of the PUREX solvent, on the extraction behaviour of Eu (III) into 30% TBP in n-dodecane. The structure of the Eu (III) TBP complex in nitric acid medium is already well established in the literature as Eu(NO₃)₃.3TBP. Further studies are needed for better understanding of this extraction mechanism and thereby the behaviour of Eu (III) under typical PUREX process conditions