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COMPLETE DOCUMENT (1862 kb) - OECD Nuclear Energy Agency

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The generation of secondary effluents starts beyond the TRUEX extraction step:<br />

Stripping of the Am-Cm-RE fraction from loaded CMPO-TBP:<br />

Washing of the TRUEX solvent:<br />

Separation of rare earths from Am-Cm (e.g. TALSPEAK):<br />

Am/Cm separation (method unknown):<br />

500 l/tHM equiv.<br />

250 l/tHM equiv.<br />

3 000 l/tHM equiv.<br />

large volumes<br />

Compared to the classical PUREX process (5000 l/tHM) this additional TRUEX sequence<br />

will increase the bulk volume of effluents to be treated.<br />

Figure II.4 TRUEX process<br />

Feed solution<br />

(0.7-5 M HNO 3)<br />

CMPO<br />

TBP<br />

HNO 3 +<br />

H 2C 2O 4 rinse<br />

U, Pu, Np, Am,<br />

Cm, Ln(III)<br />

extraction<br />

FP, inert salts,<br />

H 2C 2O 4<br />

HNO 3<br />

Am, Cm, Ln<br />

stripping<br />

Am, Cm, Ln solution<br />

An/Ln<br />

Separation<br />

HNO 3 + HAN<br />

Pu, Np<br />

stripping<br />

Pu, Np solution<br />

Hydrazine oxalate<br />

Pu<br />

stripping<br />

Hydrazine<br />

carbonate<br />

U, Pu<br />

stripping<br />

U solution<br />

Solvent<br />

recycle<br />

One drawback of this process is the effect of solvent degradation products in the process.<br />

Some of these are cation exchangers which prevent the efficient stripping of the An(III)+Ln(III)<br />

fraction. Another problem is the difficulty in stripping U(VI) and An(IV) from the solvent due to their<br />

high affinity with CMPO. In order to eliminate this problem, the solvent clean-up step must be<br />

performed thoroughly with strong complexing agents e.g. hydrofluoric acid or diphosphonic acids<br />

(TUCS), but it causes the increase of the secondary waste. PNC proposed the use of “salt-free” reagents<br />

such as HAN, hydrazine oxalate and hydrazine carbonate which were adopted to the TRUEX flowsheet<br />

[7] (see Figure II.4).<br />

In addition, CMPO has been considered not to be effective for An(III)/Ln(III) separation.<br />

Currently, a new separation scheme has been proposed by PNC utilising DTPA as a selective strip<br />

reagent for An(III). It was demonstrated that An(III) could preferentially be co-stripped with Cm(III)<br />

and heavier Lns by DTPA-NaNO 3 solution and that partial fractionation was possible by this system<br />

named SETFICS [11].<br />

122

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