Abstract:
The effect of uranium saturation, acidity and temperature on the extaction of Zr and Ru by 30%TBP was investigated by batch experiments. Accordingly, the process parameters were determined to improve the decontamination of Zr and Ru in 1A unit, and tested in lab-scale mixer-settler cascade. The results indicate that the increase in uranium saturation, acidity and temperature reduce the distribution ratio of Ru in 30%TBP, the effect of uranium saturation on the distribution ratio of Zr is much greater than the effect of the aqueous nitric acid under high uranium saturation, and the temperature shows no significant influence on the the distributaion ratio of Zr. At 45℃, using 4mol/L nitric acid in feed and scrubbing solutions in the 1A mixer-settler, the recovery rate of uranium and plutonium reachs 99.98% with Ru decontamination factor of about 10
5.