Aqueous actinide separations at Los Alamos National Laboratory are applied to the recovery and purification of plutonium from process residues, and to material certification and nuclear forensic analysis of bulk nuclear material samples. We are developing and automating microchemistry methods for analytical sample preparation in order to reduce the overall quantities of nuclear material handled in new facilities, and correspondingly reduce waste generation and radiological exposure to workers. Similarly, adoption of lower-mass and smaller-volume aqueous recovery operations for plutonium can improve criticality safety and decrease the facility footprint, compared to conventional aqueous processing methods. Microfluidic devices provide additional opportunities to rapidly characterize kinetic parameters of new solvent systems and gain fundamental mechanistic insights. This presentation will describe recent progress in the chemistry and engineering of plutonium separations in milli- and microfluidic devices.

Thinking small: Plutonium separations and processing at the microscale

251st National Meeting (2016)

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