Behavior of Trace Ruthenium in Plutonium Purification Cycle

In order to know behavior of trace ruthenium in plutonium purification cycle, the influences of the phase contact time, the phase ratio, the concentration of HNO₃ on the extraction of Ru from nitric acid solution and the influences of flow ratio, the concentrations of HNO₃ and U in 2AF, the stage number of extraction and scrubbing on the countercurrent extraction process were studied in this work. The results show significant impact of flow ratio (2AF∶2AX), the concentration of HNO₃ and U in 2AF, the stage number of extraction and scrubbing. The bench scale hot test shows that the decontamination coefficient of Ru exceeds 1 000, much higher than the designed value.