Development of a separations procedure for plutonium and uranium utilizing branched diglycolamide resin

Fineman-Sotomayor, Carolina

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/45419 Copy

Description

Title

Development of a separations procedure for plutonium and uranium utilizing branched diglycolamide resin

Author(s)

Fineman-Sotomayor, Carolina

Issue Date

2013-08-22T16:39:37Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Kaminski, Michael D.

Department of Study

Nuclear, Plasma, & Rad Engr

Discipline

Nuclear, Plasma, Radiolgc Engr

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• actinide chemistry
• separations
• extraction chromatography
• tetraalkyldiglycolamides
• diglycolamides

Abstract

Extraction chromatographic resins employ the selectivity of solvent extraction methods with the ease of chromatographic techniques. This work sought to explore the behavior of plutonium and uranium on a specialized N,N,N’,N’-tetrakis-2-éthylhexyldiglycolamide (TEHDGA) resin manufactured by Eichrom Technologies. This resin was able to selectively remove elements of interest by taking advantage of the differences in extracting metal-nitrato complexes, charge density, and steric effects. The goal was to evaluate a proposed separation scheme to remove and purify plutonium and uranium from a digested soil sample containing relatively large concentrations of alkali, alkaline earth, and transition metals in nitric acid which could potentially pose issues in separating the elements of interest. Experiments were done to better understand the sorption behavior of these actinides with the resin with varying concentrations of iron, as well as in different acidities. These batch sorption experiments described the distribution coefficients for these actinides in different acids, which were useful in determining the number of free column volumes to peak maximum values. The measured distribution coefficients for the actinides in digested soil were significantly less than the respective values for the actinides in pure acid. A separation scheme was tested to separate plutonium and uranium, as well as monitoring the behavior of europium. The separation was able to collect 75% of the loaded uranium in 0.34 bed volumes with 100% of the alpha activity due to U. The separation was also able to collect 94% of the loaded plutonium in 0.64 bed volumes with 99% of the alpha activity due to Pu. The separation gave excellent recovery with 97% of the loaded plutonium and 84% of the loaded uranium recovered

Graduation Semester

2013-08

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/45419

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2013 Carolina Fineman-Sotomayor

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