Solvent Extraction Recovery of Byproduct137Cs and90Sr from HNO3Solutions—A Technology Review and Assessment

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Abstract
A principal purpose of this paper is to call out what is perceived to be a timely need for increased research to develop improved and new solvent extraction technology for recovery of 137Cs and 90Sr from strong (≥ 0.5M HNO3) acid media, technology which can be quickly scaled up to routine plant-scale operation with highly radioactive waste solutions when needed. The present and forseeable future (2020) U.S. inventory of 137Cs and 90sr is listed; much of this inventory is expected to be available only in strongly acidic nuclear waste solutions. Comparison of available methods-precipitation and ion exchange as well as solvent extraction—for recovering 137 Cs and 90Sr from alkaline and acid media demonstrates, as expected, that very limited technology is available for use with strongly acidic solutions. Solvent extraction procedures which employ either macrocyclic polyethers (crown ethers) or dicarbolide. H+{[π-(3)-1, 2-B9C2H11Cl2±2Co}−, to extract 137Cs and 90Sr from ≥ 0.5M HNO3 solutions have recently been proposed. But, in their present state of development, both the crown ether and dicarbolide extraction