Abstract
Synthetic inorganic exchangers exhibit good thermal and radiation stability. Thorium oxalate precipitate shows potential for co-precipitation of plutonium and americium from oxalate supernatant generated during plutonium oxalate precipitation. In the present study, efforts were made to prepare thorium oxalate precipitate to be used for column operation. Distribution ratios were determined to optimize conditions for sorption of plutonium and americium on thorium oxalate from nitric acid + oxalic acid solutions with composition similar to that of oxalate supernatant. Column experiments were also performed to evaluate the sorption capacity of thorium oxalate for plutonium and americium from the same medium. The result showed that, thorium oxalate prepared in 1.75M HNO3 at 70 °C is suitable for column operations. These studies showed that plutonium and americium could be simultaneously removed from aqueous solutions with composition similar to plutonium oxalate waste using glass column packed with thorium oxalate and these nuclides could be recovered by eluting with 3M HNO3.
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Jayachandran, K., Bhanushali, R.D., Pius, I.C. et al. Preparation, characterization and application of thorium oxalate for sorption of plutonium and americium from aqueous solution. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 278, 103–109 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-007-7210-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-007-7210-3