Dissolution of Neptunium and Plutonium Oxides Using a Catalyzed Electrolytic Process

Hylton, TD

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

关键词: Production;    Oxidizers;    12 Management Of Radioactive Wastes, And Non-Radioactive Wastes From Nuclear Facilities;    Neptunium;    Processing;   

DOI  :  10.2172/840086
RP-ID  :  ORNL/TM-2004/211
RP-ID  :  AC05-00OR22725
RP-ID  :  840086

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

This report discusses the scoping study performed to evaluate the use of a catalyzed electrolytic process for dissolving {sup 237}Np oxide targets that had been irradiated to produce {sup 238}Pu oxide. Historically, these compounds have been difficult to dissolve, and complete dissolution was obtained only by adding hydrofluoric acid to the nitric acid solvent. The presence of fluoride in the mixture is undesired because the fluoride ions are corrosive to tank and piping systems and the fluoride ions cause interferences in the spectrophotometric analyses. The goal is to find a dissolution method that will eliminate these issues and that can be incorporated into a processing system to support the domestic production and purification of {sup 238}Pu. This study evaluated the potential of cerium(IV) ions, a strong oxidant, to attack and dissolve the oxide compounds. In the dissolution process, the cerium(IV) ions are reduced to cerium(III) ions, which are not oxidants. Therefore, an electrolytic process was incorporated to continuously convert cerium(III) ions back to cerium(IV) ions so that they can dissolve more of the oxide compounds. This study showed that the neptunium and plutonium oxides were successfully dissolved and that more development work should be performed to optimize the procedure.