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Molar absorptivities of U(VI), U(IV), and Pu(III) in nitric acid solutions of various concentrations relevant to developing nuclear fuel recycling flowsheets

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Abstract

A number of inconsistencies in the literature was revealed while developing on-line spectrophotometric monitoring tools for determining aqueous phase actinide concentrations in a tributyl phosphate based solvent extraction flowsheet. This prompted a re-evaluation of the molar absorptivities of U(VI), U(IV) and Pu(III) ions in nitric acid (0.5–4 M). In this paper, our measured molar absorptivity values are reported and compared to the available technical literature data. Results of spectrophotometric analysis of grab samples from a counter-current solvent extraction flowsheet test show satisfactory agreement with total uranium and plutonium concentrations determined in the same samples by ICP-MS.

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Acknowledgements

This work is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, through the Nuclear Technologies Research and Development Program, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is operated by Battelle Memorial Institute for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-76RL01830.

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  1. Radiochemical Processing Laboratory, Energy and Environment Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, 99352, USA

    Sergey I. Sinkov, Gabriel B. Hall & Gregg J. Lumetta

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  1. Sergey I. Sinkov
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  2. Gabriel B. Hall
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  3. Gregg J. Lumetta
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Correspondence to Sergey I. Sinkov.

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Sinkov, S.I., Hall, G.B. & Lumetta, G.J. Molar absorptivities of U(VI), U(IV), and Pu(III) in nitric acid solutions of various concentrations relevant to developing nuclear fuel recycling flowsheets. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 324, 773–789 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-020-07106-8

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