Recovery of technetium, palladium, rhodium, and ruthenium produced by nuclear fission

A proposal is made to separate the metals produced in nuclear fission of the platinum group Pd, Rh, Ru, as well as technetium, from the aqueous acid waste solutions of the nuclear fuel processing, as their use could possibly be of technical interest. The separation from the solution and from one another is to take place by absorption in ion exchangers on a carbon basis, each containing specific adsorbents. The production of the exchanger (20 - 25wt% adsorbent) is described. Dimethyl gluyoxine, diacetyl dithiol or diacetyl toluol-3,4-dithiol, and 8-mercaptochinolin or phenylthiourea are suitable for the adsorption of Pd, Tc, Rh and Ru, respectively. The acid solution is passed through the exchanger with draws out the elements one after another. The exchangers are then calcinated, the metals yielded extracted, cleaned, and put to commercial use or stored for the time necessary to reduce their excessive radioactivity. An example describes the application of the method to the waste solution of the PUREX method of the nuclear fuel processing plant in Hanford, USA. (RB/LH)