The treatment of combustible alpha-wastes at Eurochemic using acid digestion and a plutonium recovery process. First results of the active operation of a demonstration plant

At Eurochemic 800 kg of combustible alpha-wastes, containing 7 +- 1 kg of plutonium, are being treated using acid digestion and a process to recover the plutonium from the acid digestion residues. The wastes are first soaked in cold sulphuric acid and the resulting slurry is fed into a ring-type acid digester which is kept at 2500C. In the process the plutonium is converted into the sulphate. It is brought into solution by a leaching procedure, separated by extraction using a primary amine and finally converted into the dioxide by an oxalate precipitation and by calcination. A material balance shows that, since the active start-up of the installations in March 1983, 93% of the 2.2 kg of plutnNium fed into the digester are recovered in the form of the dioxide