Removal of ruthenium from PUREX process by electrolytic method

This paper reports that in the nuclear fuel reprocessing by PUREX process and following waste treatment, ruthenium is one of the noticeable fission product element because its chemical behavior is complicated and of its radioactivity. It has many oxidation state (0 ∼ 8), and forms a large number of complexes. Ruthenium tetraoxide is especially volatile, and causes many troubles because of this property. The problems in the PUREX Process associated with ruthenium are as follows: In the process of tributyl phosphate (TBP)-dodecane extraction of uranium and plutonium, the behavior of ruthenium is unpredictable and complicated. In the process of the concentration of highly radioactive aqueous waste containing many nitrates of fission products and nitric acid, ruthenium is easily oxidized to volatile tetraoxide acid and escapes to the vapor phase. And the treatment of radioactive ruthenium in many kinds of off gas generated from various steps of reprocessing are very tedious, because of the complicated chemical behaviors of ruthenium under many conditions