Recovery of americium from analytical solid waste containing large amounts of uranium, plutonium and silver

Trace metallic impurity analysis by spectroscopic techniques is one of the important steps of chemical quality control of nuclear fuel materials. Depending on the burn-up and the storage time of the fuel, there is an accumulation of 241Am in plutonium based fuel materials due to β decay of 241Pu. In this paper, attempts were made to develop a method for separation of 241Am from 1.2 kg of analytical solid waste containing 70% U, 23% Pu, 5% Ag and 1–2% C as major constituents along with other minor constituents generated during trace metal assay of plutonium based fuel samples by d. c. arc carrier distillation atomic emission spectrometry. A combination of ion exchange, solvent extraction and precipitation methods were carried out to separate ~45 mg of 241Am as Am(NO3)3 from 15 L of the analytical waste solution. Dowex 1×4 ion exchange chromatographic method was used for separation of Pu whereas 30% TBP–kerosene was utilized for separation of U. Am was separated from other impurities by fluoride precipitation followed by conversion to nitrate. The recovery of Pu from ion exchange chromatographic separation step was ~93% while the cumulative recovery of Am after separation process was found to be ~90%.