Successful deployment of the currently-envisioned advanced nuclear fuel cycle requires the development of a partitioning scheme to separate Am from the lanthanides.The Am/lanthanide separation is challenging since all the metals are normally trivalent and have similar ionic radii. Oxidation of Am to higher oxidation states is one option to achieve such a separation. Building on research performed by Dr. Leigh Martin, hexavalent Am has been successfully prepared using sodium bismuthate as an oxidant in the acidic solutions used in fuel cycle separations, and separations have been demonstrated at the bench scale using 1 M diamylamylphosphonate (DAAP) in dodecane and 1M DEHBA in dodecane. Scale-up of such a separation concept provides an additional challenge. Kinetic issues with the oxidized Am require very rapid separation after oxidation. Further complicating the process is the presence of Ce(IV) which is highly corrosive to stainless steel and results in the generation of elements that reduce the Am. Recent results relating to the engineering scale-up research, including radiotracer testing in 5-cm centrifugal contactors and 3-D printed 2-cm centrifugal contactors will be presented.

Recent advances in development of the sodium bismuthate process for the oxidation and separation of Am from used nuclear fuel

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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