Future directions for separation science in nuclear and radiochemistry

Solvent extraction and ion exchange have been the most widely used separation techniques in nuclear and radiochemistry since their development in the 1940s. Many successful separations processes based on these techniques have been used for decades in research laboratories, analytical laboratories, and industrial plants. Thus, it is easy to conclude that most of the fundamental and applied research that is needed in these areas has been done, and that further work in these ''mature'' fields is unlikely to be fruitful. A more careful review, however, reveals that significant problems remain to be solved, and that there is a demand for the development of new reagents, methods, and systems to solve the increasingly complex separations problems in the nuclear field. Specifically, new separation techniques based on developments in membrane technology and biotechnology that have occurred over the last 20 years should find extensive applications in radiochemical separations. Considerable research is needed in such areas as interfacial chemistry, the design and control of highly selective separation agents, critically evaluated data bases and mathematical models, and the fundamental chemistry of dilute solutions if these problems are to be solved and new techniques developed in a systematic way. Nonaqueous separation methods, such as pyrochemical and fluoride volatility processes, have traditionally played a more limited role in nuclear and radiochemistry, but recent developments in the chemistry and engineering of these processes promises to open up new areas of research and application in the future