Abstract
Efficient separation of minor actinides and lanthanides from used nuclear fuel could potentially lead to the development of sustainable nuclear fuel cycles. Herein, we report an in-depth study on selectivity and speciation in the extraction of the trivalent minor actinide Am and rare earth metal ions with a pre-organized phenanthroline-based ligand in a hydrocarbon solvent system relevant to nuclear fuel reprocessing. The 1 : 1 and 2 : 1 ligand-to-metal complexes dominate the speciation in the organic solvent over a range of ligand-to-metal concentrations, as evidenced by experimental data and supported by modeling.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 26537-26541 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | RSC Advances |
Volume | 9 |
Issue number | 46 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2019 |
Funding
This research was sponsored by the Fuel Cycle Research and Development program, Office of Nuclear Energy, U.S. Department of Energy. Authors thank Dr Neil J. Williams for performing IC experiments and Dr Aleksandr S. Ivanov for generating a structure for TOC graphic. This manuscript has been authored in part by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http:// energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).