Reduction of minor nuclides in nuclear fuel reprocessing

Demonstration experiments of an advanced PUREX process, PARC process, have been conducted by using spent fuel in NUCEF. The separation efficiency of uranium, plutonium, neptunium and technetium in the PARC process was measured in chemical flow sheet experiments. It was found that n-butyr-aldehyde was an effective reductant of neptunium(VI) in the presence of uranium(VI) and plutonium(IV). Normal butylamine compounds were found to be promising salt-free solvent washing reagents for recycle use of organic solvents. (authors)