Authors: P Govindan A Palamalai T Vasudevan K S Vijayan R V Subba Rao M Venkataraman R Natarajan
Publish Date: 2012/05/24
Volume: 295, Issue: 1, Pages: 77-82
Abstract
Ammonium uranyl carbonate AUC based process of simultaneous partitioning and reconversion for uranium and plutonium is developed for the recovery of uranium and plutonium present in spent fuel of fast breeder reactors FBRs Effect of pH on the solubility of carbonates of uranium and plutonium in ammonium carbonate medium is studied Effect of mole ratios of uranium and plutonium as a function of uranium and plutonium concentration at pH 80–85 for effective separation of uranium and plutonium to each other is studied Feasibility of reconversion of plutonium in carbonate medium is also studied The studies indicate that uranium is selectively precipitated as AUC at pH 80–85 by adding ammonium carbonate solution leaving plutonium in the filtrate Plutonium in the filtrate after acidified with concentrated nitric acid could also be precipitated as carbonate at pH 65–70 by adding ammonium carbonate solution A flow sheet is proposed and evaluated for partitioning and reconversion of uranium and plutonium simultaneously in the FBR fuel reprocessingThe authors are thankful to Sri SC Chetal Director Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research Kalpakkam and Dr Baldev Raj Former Director Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research Kalpakkam Sri A Ravisankar Associate Director and Sri V Vijayakumar Head RPOD IGCAR Kalapakkam for their valuable suggestions and encouragements during the course of work The authors are also thankful to Sri K Dhamodharan and Sri Pradeep Kumar Sharma for their help in some experiments
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