Determination of Fissile Loadings onto Monosodium Titanate (MST) under Conditions Relevant to the Actinide Removal Process Facility

This report describes the results of an experimental study to measure the sorption of fissile actinides on monosodium titanate (MST) at conditions relevant to operation of the Actinide Removal Process (ARP). The study examined the effect of a single contact of a large volume of radionuclide-spiked simulant solution with a small mass of MST. The volume of simulant to MST (8.5 L to 0.2 g of MST solids) was designed to mimic the maximum phase ratio that occurs between the multiple contacts of MST and waste solution and washing of the accumulated solids cycle of ARP. This work provides the following results. (1) After a contact time of {approx}2 weeks, we measured the following actinide loadings on the MST (average of solution and solids data), Pu: 2.79 {+-} 0.197 wt %, U: 14.0 {+-} 1.04 wt %, and Np: 0.839 {+-} 0.0178 wt %. (2) The plutonium and uranium loadings reported above are considerably higher than previously reported values. The higher loading result from the very high phase ratio and the high initial mass concentrations of uranium and plutonium. A separate upcoming document details the predicted values for this system versus the results. (3) The strontium DF values measured in these tests proved much lower than those reported previously with simulants having the same bulk chemical composition. The low strontium DF values reflect the very low initial mass concentration of strontium in this simulant (<100 {micro}g/L) compared to that in previous testing (> 600 {micro}g/L)