An Anion Exchange Process for Americium–Curium Recovery from Plutonium Process Waste

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Abstract
An anion exchange process for the recovery of americium, curium, and rare earths contained in the waste effluent from plutonium processing has been developed and tested on a laboratory scale. In the process the waste, which is a solution of americium, curium, aluminum, and fission products, in concentrated nitric acid, is concentrated by evaporation until a temperature of 140°C is reached. This removes excess acid, and the proper feed concentration of 2.34 M Al(NO3)3 is obtained by dilution. The americium, curium, and rare earths are sorbed on Dowex 1–10X resin; aluminum is washed from the column with 8 M LiN03; and the americium, curium, and rare earths are eluted with 0.65 M HN03. In laboratory demonstrations of this process made with americium tracer and macro amounts of rare earths, americium losses were undetectable, aluminum decontamination factors were 250, and rare earth concentration in the product was as great as 8.5 gm/liter.

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