AMERICIUM SEPARATIONS FROM NITRIC ACID PROCESS EFFLUENT STREAMS

The aging of the US nuclear stockpile presents a number of challenges, including the ever-increasing radioactivity of plutonium residues from 241Am. Minimization of this weak gamma-emitter in process and waste solutions is desirable to reduce both worker exposure and the effects of radiolysis on the final waste product. Removal of americium from plutonium nitric acid processing effluents, however, is complicated by the presence of large.quantities of competing metals, particularly Fe and Al, and-strongly oxidizing acidic solutions. The reprocessing operation offers several points at which americium removal maybe attempted, and we are evaluating two classes of materials targeted at different steps in the process. Extraction chromatography resin materials loaded with three different alkylcarbamoyl phosphinates and phosphine oxides were accessed for Am removal efficiency and Am/Fe selectivity from 1-7 molar nitric acid solutions. Commercial and experimental mono- and bifunctional anion-exchange resins were evaluated for total alpha-activity removal from post-evaporator solutions whose composition, relative to the original nitric acid effluent, is reduced in acid and greatly increased in total salt content. With both classes of materials, americium/total alpha emission removal is sufficient to meet regulatory requirements even under sub-optimal conditions. Batch distribution coefficients, column performance data, and the effects of Fe-masking agents will be presented