Separation Americium From Lanthanides by C2-BTBP

The extraction behavior of americium and lanthanides from nitric acid solution was investigated under various conditions, such as contact time, the concentration of C2-BTBP, and the concentration of nitric acid. The results show that the extraction equilibrium of americium is reached in 10 minutes. The distribution ratio of americium increases firstly and then decreases with different concentrations of nitric acid. The distribution ratio of lanthanides is very low in different concentration of nitric acid. On the basis of batch extraction experiments, a 10 stages counter-current flowsheet was set up (6 stages for extraction, 4 stages for scrubbing, ratio of flow AF∶AX∶AS=1∶1∶0.5, 1.0mol/L HNO₃ of aqueous feed, and 1.0 mol/L HNO₃ as scrubbing solution). The experiment results show that the extraction efficiency of americium and lanthanides is more than 99-93% and the concentration of lanthanides is less than 0.03%, respectively. The decontamination factor for americium in lanthanides is more than 10³. The experimental results indicate that americium can be separated from lanthanides by C2-BTBP.