Recovery and Purification of Technetium-99 From Neutralized Purex Wastes

Technetium recovery from neutralized Purex waste supernate by ion exchange was studied on laboratory and pilot plant scales. The pertechnetate ion was shown to be absorbed from slightly acid, neutral, or basic solutions at concentrations as high as 7.5 M in nitrate by a variety of strong-base anion exchange resins. Several grams of Tc were recovered from plant waste supernate in three runs using a single five liter anion exchange bed. The recovered Tc was further purified by oxidation of Ru to RuO/sub 4/ and precipitation of the Ru on a cation exchange bed to give a Tc product of high purity. The Tc was subsequently precipitated as technetium sulfide. The results obtained show that Tc can be economically recovered from neutralized Purex wastes by a single stage ion exchange process with over-all yields greater than 80%. the Tc can be obtained with a chemical and radiochemical purity greater than 99%. (auth