Behavior of Trace Zirconium in Plutonium Purification Cycle

The influences of the time of phase contact, the phase ratio, the concentration of HNO3 on the extraction of Zr in nitric acid solution and the influences of flow ratio, the concentration of HNO₃ in 2AF, the stage number of the extraction and scrubbing sections and the concentration of uranium in 2AF on counter current extraction process have been studied in this work. The results show that there is a significant impact for the removal of Zr by flow ratio (2AF∶2AX), the concentration of HNO₃ in 2AF, the stage number of the scrubbing section. Though there is a limited impact for the removal of Zr by the concentration of uranium in 2AF. The better extraction technology was verified through bench scale test. The decontamination factor (DF) of Zr is about 163,  much higher than the design value.