Abstract:
Computer simulation of Purex process can facilitate the optimization and improvement of the process. Nitrous acid is inevitably present in Purex process, which also affects the extraction of some important nuclides, thus, it is desired to build a HNO
2 distribution model which could be incorporated into Purex computer simulation code. In this work base titration and diazotization-coupling reaction was used to determine the concentration of HNO
3 and HNO
2 in both equilibrium aqueous and organic phase, to determine their distribution ratio. Nitrous acid concentration had little effect on the distribution ratio of HNO
3 and HNO
2. As HNO
3 concentration increases, the distribution ratio of HNO
3 increases first then decreases, while the distribution ratio of HNO
2 decreases. The distribution ratio of HNO
3 and HNO
2 increase with TBP concentration. A formula was established to correlate the distribution ratio of HNO
2 with HNO
3 concentration and free TBP concentration. The calculated results agree well with the experiment results.