Quarterly report, January 1951--March 1951, Chemical Research Section

The current Relox flowsheet proposes precipitation of plutonium peroxide from IIBP solution concentrated by evaporation to 10 g Pu/1 and ca. 5.5 M HNO{sub 3}. Such a solution might have an Al{sup +++} concentration as high as 0.02 M with stainless steel corrosion product concentrations of the order of magnitude of those found in AT solution diluted to 10 g Pu/l. Methods for the precipitation of plutonium peroxide from this type of solution, either with or without partial neutralization of the nitric acid have been described (HW-20053, pp 4-5). Recent work has been devoted to an investigation of the extent to which aluminum, chromium, iron, and contaminating elements are separated from plutonium by peroxide precipitation