Decontamination of Zr by Acetohydroxamic Acid in Uranium Purification Cycle

The effect of the concentrations of acetohydroxamic acid(AHA), HNO₃ and HDBP on the distribution coefficient of Zr(Ⅳ) is studied by single-stage experiments. The result of the experiments simulating the scrubbing section of 2D extractor of the uranium purification cycle shows： D(Zr(Ⅳ)) decreases with the increase of AHA concentration or the decrease of HNO₃ concentration. In uranium system，HDBP does not effect DF(Zr(Ⅳ)) when c(HDBP)≤ 0.1 mol/L. The results of the two times of counter current cascade experiments simulating the scrubbing section of 2D extractor show that DF(Zr(Ⅳ)) is 3.2×10⁴, 4.3×10⁴， respectively. Material balance of Zr(Ⅳ) is 100%, 98%， respectively. All the results indicate that the decontamination of Zr(Ⅳ) could be improved using AHA under the precondition of ensuring uranium recovering rate in the uranium purification cycle.