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Recovery and purification of plutonium in lean plutonium product stream obtained during reprocessing of fast reactor spent fuels

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Abstract

A method has been developed for final purification of plutonium from uranium and fission products of high beta gamma activity. This method involves selection of a suitable ion exchange resin for the purification of plutonium in order to deliver a quality PuO2 product. The effect of the concentration of uranium and plutonium, effect of increased loading of uranium and number of bed volumes for effective washing, which are some of the parameters that generally affect the recovery and purification of plutonium were investigated. An excellent decontamination factor for fission products has been achieved by this anion exchange process which in turn delivered an excellent PuO2 product quality in terms of purity and associated beta gamma activity with low personnel radiation exposure.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Sri A. Ravisankar, Associate Director, Reprocessing projects and Operations group for constant encouragement. The authors are very much indebted to Dr. R.V. Subba Rao, Supdt (Lab), Reprocessing Plant Operations Division, reprocessing Group, IGCAR, Kalpakkam for valuable suggestions and guidance. The authors are thankful to Sri T. Aneesh, Sri Saurabh Suman, Sri R. Karthik, Sri K Stanley, Sri J Santaram, Miss. Anusree Thilakan, Sri N. Srinivasan and K. Rajkumar, RPOD, Reprocessing Group, IGCAR, Kalpakkam for their technical help during the course of this study. The authors are also thankful to Sri P. Sivakumar and Sri D. Natarajan for their kind help in the preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Reprocessing Plant Operations Division, Reprocessing Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, 603 102, India

    P. Govindan, K. S. Vijayan, G. Santhosh Kumar, V. Vijayakumar, M. Venkataraman & R. Natarajan

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  1. P. Govindan
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  2. K. S. Vijayan
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  3. G. Santhosh Kumar
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  4. V. Vijayakumar
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  5. M. Venkataraman
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  6. R. Natarajan
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Correspondence to P. Govindan.

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Govindan, P., Vijayan, K.S., Santhosh Kumar, G. et al. Recovery and purification of plutonium in lean plutonium product stream obtained during reprocessing of fast reactor spent fuels. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 295, 307–313 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-012-2194-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-012-2194-z

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