SEPARATION OF MINOR ACTINIDES FROM A GENUINE MA/LN FRACTION

Separation of the trivalent Minor Actinides (MA), Am and Cm, has been performed from a genuine MA(III) + Ln(III) solution using BisTriazinePyridine (BTP) as organic extractant. The representative MA/Ln fraction was obtained from a dissolved commercial LWR fuel (45.2 GWd/tM) submitted subsequently too a PUREX process followed by a DIAMEX process. A centrifugal extractor set-up (16-stages), working in a continuous counter-current mode, was used for the liquid-liquid separation. In the nPr-BTP process, feed decontamination factors for Am and Cm above 96 and 65, respectively were achieved. The back-extraction was more efficient for Am (99.1 % recovery) than for Cm (97.5%). This experiment, using the BisTriazinePyridine molecule is the first successful demonstration of the separation of MA from lanthanides in a genuine MA/Ln fraction with a nitric acid concentration of ca. 1M. It represents an important break through in the difficult field of minor actinide partitioning of high level liquid waste. 280 1