[1D12-16] Aqueous Reprocessing and Pyroprocessing

[1D12] Development of new extractants for MA / RE separation in SELECT process

*Hideya Suzuki¹, Kojiro Shimojo¹, Tatsuya Emori¹, Nao Tsutsui¹, Tatsuya Kurosawa¹, Mitsunobu Shibata¹, Tomohiro Kawasaki¹, Yasutoshi Ban¹ (1. Japan Atomic Energy Agency)

Keywords:minor actinide, MA/RE separation, SELECT process, solvent extraction, extractant, TONAADA

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been studying partitioning and transmutation (P&T) systems. In P&T, JAEA proposed a novel hydrometallurgical process called “SELECT (Solvent Extraction from Liquid waste using Extractants of CHON-type for Transmutation) process”. In the process, the separation of minor actinide (MA) from the chemically similar Rare earth elements (RE) is the key step. New acidic amide-type extractants, called TONAADA (Tetraoctyl nitriloacetic acid diacetamide) have been developed by JAEA. In this study, solvent extraction tests were performed using TONAADA, THNAADA (hexyl-type), and B-TONAADA (branched side-chain- type). As a result, the separation of MA from the nitric acid solution was achieved with high separation factor.