title: Glutarimidedioxime: A Complexing and Reducing Reagent for Plutonium Recovery from Spent Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing.
abstract: Efficient separation processes for recovering uranium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel are essential to the development of advanced nuclear fuel cycles. The performance characteristics of a new salt-free complexing and reducing reagent, glutarimidedioxime (H2A), are reported for recovering plutonium in a PUREX process. With a phase ratio of organic to aqueous of up to 10:1, plutonium can be effectively stripped from 30% tributyl phosphate (TBP) in kerosene into 1 M HNO3 with H2A. The complexation-reduction mechanism is illustrated with the combination of UV/Vis absorption spectra and the crystal structure of a Pu(IV) complex with the reagent. The fast stripping rate and the high efficiency for stripping Pu(IV), through the complexation-reduction mechanism, is suitable for use in centrifugal contactors with very short contact/resident times, thereby offering significant advantages over conventional processes.
authors.affiliation: Radiochemistry Department, China Institute of Atomic Energy, P. O. Box 275-26, Beijing, 102413, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xian
authors.affiliation: Radiochemistry Department, China Institute of Atomic Energy, P. O. Box 275-26, Beijing, 102413, China. gtian@ciae.ac.cn.|Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA. gtian@ciae.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Guoxin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Christine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Beavers
authors.affiliation: Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA. steat@lbl.gov.
authors.forename: Simon J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Teat
authors.affiliation: Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA. dkshuh@lbl.gov.
authors.forename: David K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Shuh
keywords: chelates; plutonium; reduction; structure elucidation; waste reduction