Separation of thorium from uranium product at the tail end of thorium fuel reprocessing using macroporous cation-exchange resin

The utility of macroporous cation-exchange resins for the separation of uranium from thorium (relevant to the final purification of the product uranium after reprocessing of the thorium breeder fuel) was examined. Two such cation-exchange resins were studied and compared with a previously used gel-type resin. Batch experiments and column experiments were performed to generate equilibrium data and to optimize the procedure for the separation of U from Th under process conditions. Recovery and purity of the final product were the same while loading and washing rates were much higher (120 mL/h) than those used for gel-type resins (40 mL/h). Much higher throughput was achieved without losing product quality when macroporous resins were used instead of the gel-type resin.