Experience of Mastering, Industrial Exploitation, and Optimization of the Integrated Extraction–Precipitation Technology for Fractionation of Liquid High-Activity Wastes at Mayak Production Association
M. V. Logunov, Yu. A. Voroshilov, В. А. Бабаин, A.S. Skobtsov
Abstract
Abstract Results are presented of tests, mastering, industrial exploitation, and optimization of an integrated scheme for fractionation of liquid high-activity wastes (HAWs) produced in processing of spent nuclear fuel (SNF), which includes the extractive recovery of the Cs–Sr with the system based on chlorinated cobalt dicarbollide in a heavy fluorinated diluent and extraction from the resulting raffinates of a group of rtansplutonium and rare-earth elements by the oxalate precipitation method. This was done at Mayak Production Association in 1996–2003. A total of more than 1600 m3 of HAWs that were stored during a long time in storage facilities and contain more than 54 MCi of β- emitters. About 52 MCi of β- and also about 0.5 MCi of α-nuclides were isolated into concentrates and transferred to vitrification. The scale of activities on integrated fractionation of acid HAWs has no analogs in the world.