The Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Management sites house millions of gallons of high level radioactive waste generated from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons.  This waste provides a challenging environment for separations due to the highly alkaline solutions with high ionic strength and complex chemical compositions, in addition to the high radiation field.  Therefore, materials and technologies used in these processes require high radiation resistance, stability in extreme chemical environments, and high selectivity for the radionuclides of interest.  This presentation will summarize the current technologies used in the field, including ion-exchange and solvent extraction processes, as well as some recent research on metal-organic framework templated materials for these applications.

Separations in high level waste treatment

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.