DocJax

Declassified record · U.S. Department of Energy

Recovery of Fission Products from Hanford Wastes

Document type
Miscellaneous
Length
1 page
Open the original scanArchive record OSTI ID 16359258 · public domain

Document text

Machine-read from the scan, so expect some errors. Lines that couldn’t be read are left out.

Page 1

Recovery of Fission Products from IIanford 'Jlastes The recovery of specific fission products from present Ilanford process wastes or future Redox process wastes i s considered feasible. choice of Z r and Cb recovery has been based on their favorable half lives, high fission yield, hard earnma radiation and possible procedures for chen ical recovery. Kili tar y Establishment have been questioned regard in e the urgency of the development of are dio logical weapon and consequently whether o r not recovery from present Hanford wastes i s necessary. is received, it i s suggested that the recovery of Z r and Cb from Redox solutions be studied. The Joint Flanners of the National Cn the Hanford plant scale the I AW waste solution consists of about 1,5GO gallons of aqueous solution with the following approxiw t e also contains over 99% of the fission products, about 1% of the original U and less than 0.1% of the original Pu (CN3811). Neither the final form nor the radiochemical o r chemical purity of the separated isotopes can be specified now. The rec$overy process developed should be as flexible as possible with respect to these solvent extraction and adsorption orion exchange. Precipitation of specific carriers for ZR-Cb might b e employed, although high salt concentrations might interfere and subsequent separation of Zr-Cb from the carrier be required. Extraction of Z r into benzene using TTA asthe coirplexing agent i s chemical purity should be high. Columbium however, is poorly extracted, High extraction coefficients for Zr were found i n experiments with synthetic solutions (R. E. Connick, personal cormnun.). experiment with pilot plant I.:';{ solution poor extraction was obtained (H. Hymn). The radio - colloidal form of Z r is evidently of great importance i n determining the extraction of Zr. Adsorption of Zr and Cb on in ore anic materials or on ion-exchange resins followed by selective el u tri ation kith coiuplexing acids(oxalic, citric)also appears promising. The resulting product should be relatively pure and with a high specific activity. It i s suggested that several of these methods be investigated in this Rational Laboratory Redox Pilot Plant, Possible modes of recovery involve precipitation, ?TA Very few ions are extracted and the radio - Samples of I AW solution may b e obtained from the Argonne