• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.186-196
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• 2020

A simple and rapid preconcentration method of actinide from seawater using Actinide resin was developed and tested with the seawater spiked with a known U and Th. The developed method of Actinide resin based on column chromatography is less time-consuming and requires less labor compared with a typical co-precipitation technique for preconcentration of actinides. U and Th, which are relatively weak-bonded with Actinide resin among actinides, were used to determine the optimum flow rate of seawater sample and evaluate the capacity of Actinide resin to concentrate actinides from seawater. A flow rate of 50 mL min^-1 was available with Actinide resin 2 mL (BV, bed volume). When 5 or 10 L of seawater containing U were loaded on Actinide resin (2 mL, BV) at 50 mL min^-1, the recovery of U was 93 % and 86 %, respectively. For extraction of actinides bound with Actinide resin, we compared three methods: solvent extraction, ashing-acid digestion, and ashing-microwave digestion. Ashing-microwave digestion method shows the best performance of which is the recovery of 100 % for U and 81 % for Th. For the preconcentration of actinides in 200 L of seawater, a typical coprecipitation method requires 2-3 days, but the developed method in this study is achieved the high recovery of actinides within 12 h.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.163-174
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• 2008

As part of the spent fuel treatment program at the Idaho National Laboratory, a vacuum distillation process is being employed for the recovery of actinide products following an electrorefining process. Separation of the actinide products from a molten salt electrolyte and cadmium is achieved by a batch operation called cathode processing. A cathode processor has been designed and developed to efficiently remove the process chemicals and consolidate the actinide products for further processing. This paper describes the fundamentals of cathode processing, the evolution of the equipment design, the operation and efficiency of the equipment, and recent developments at the cathode processor. In addition, challenges encountered during the processing of irradiated spent nuclear fuel in the cathode processor will be discussed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.863-868
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• 2014

The evaluation of thermal properties of actinide oxide fuels is a problem of high importance for the development of new generation reactors. In the present study, an expression obtained for n-dimensional Debye functions is used to derive a simple analytical expression for the specific heat capacity of nuclear fuels. To test the validity and reliability of this expression, the analytical expression is applied to $UO_2$, $NpO_2$, $ThO_2$, and $PuO_2$. It is seen that the formula was in agreement with the experimental and theoretical results reported in the literature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.337-337
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• 2004

As one of researches for the P ＆ T purposes, a basic experiment on the recovery of actinide elements from the mixture with rare earth elements by means of electrorefining using a liquid cadmium cathode in the LiCl-KC1 eutectic melt was carried out. In order to examine the behaviors of electrodeposition of metal ions on a liquid electrode, recovery experiments of rare earth metals resulting from forming electrodeposits were performed by a galvanostatic electrolysis method at various current densities. A cyclic voltammetric technique was applied to determine reduction-oxidation potential of each metal element in the melt and to detect the changes of the multi component melt composition for on-line monitoring. Also, a collaboration study with RIAR was completed to test the preliminary feasibility on a recovery of actinide elements from the mixture with rare earth elements using a liquid cadmium cathode and actinide metals. Experimental results showed that the ratio of actinides to rare earths, 9: 0.5∼1 led to the rare earth content of about 5∼10 wt% in the deposit.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.459-482
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• 2006

A geochemical approach to the long-term safety of waste disposal is discussed in connection with the significance of actinides, which shall deliver the major radioactivity inventory subsequent to the relatively short-term decay of fission products. Every power reactor generates transuranic (TRU) elements: plutonium and minor actinides (Np, Am, Cm), which consist chiefly of long-lived nuclides emitting alpha radiation. The amount of TRU actinides generated in a fuel life period is found to be relatively small (about 1 wt% or less in spent fuel) but their radioactivity persists many hundred thousands years. Geological confinement of waste containing TRU actinides demands, as a result, fundamental knowledge on the geochemical behavior of actinides in the repository environment for a long period of time. Appraisal of the scientific progress in this subject area is the main objective of the present paper. Following the introductory discussion on natural radioactivities, the nuclear fuel cycle is briefly brought up with reference to actinide generation and waste disposal. As the long-term disposal safety concerns inevitably with actinides, the significance of the aquatic actinide chemistry is summarized in two parts: the fundamental properties relevant to their aquatic behavior and the geochemical reactions in nanoscopic scale. The constrained space of writing allows discussion on some examples only, for which topics of the primary concern are selected, e.g. apparent solubility and colloid generation, colloid-facilitated migration, notable speciation of such processes, etc. Discussion is summed up to end with how to make a geochemical approach available for the long-term disposal safety of nuclear waste or for the performance assessment (PA) as known generally.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.498-505
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• 1999

Trivalent actinide-lanthanide group separation is difficult to perform on an industrial scale, because of the many drawbacks of the available chemical process. In this paper, picolinamide(C$_{8}$H$_{17}$) is synthesized and characterized, and extraction yields of Am-241, Eu-152 and Nd are determined in batch extraction experiments. In particular, the influence of the solvent is described. The extraction yields of Am-241, Eu-152 and Nd depended on the LiNO$_3$ concentration, the picolinamide(C$_{8}$H$_{17}$) concentration and the acidity. A favorable picolinamide(C$_{8}$H$_{17}$) concentration was found to be about 2M. The appropriate nitric acid concentration and LiNO$_3$ concentration were confirmed to be about 0.125M and 3M, respectively. The separation factor of Am and Eu was about 9.9 at optimum conditions. The picolinamide(C$_{8}$H$_{17}$) is a very promising extractant for the actinide(III)-lanthanides(III) separation.aration.aration.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.996-1002
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• 1999

The oxalate precipitation of lanthanide and actinide by oxalic acid was investigated in the simulated radioactive liquid waste, which was composed of 17 elements of alkali, alkaline earth(Cs, Rb, Ba, Sr), transition metal(Zr, Fe, Mo, Ni, Pd, Rh), lanthanide(La, Y, Nd, Ce, Eu) and actinide(Np, Am) in nitric acid solution. The effect of concentrations of nitric acid and ascorbic acid on the precipitation yield of each element in the simulated solution was examined at 0.5 M oxalic acid concentration. The precipitation yields of the elements were usually decreased with nitric acid concentration, nevertheless, the precipitation yields of lanthanide and actinide were more than 99%. Palladium was precipitated due to the reduction of Pd(II) into Pd metal by the addition of ascorbic acid in the oxalate precipitation and then, the precipitation yields of Mo, Fe, Ni, Ba decreased by 10~20% with concentration of ascorbic acid. The reductive precipitation of Pd(II) into Pd metal by the addition of ascorbic acid into the simulated radwaste occurred at below 1 M nitric acid concentration and its yield showed maximum at the ascorbic acid concentration of 0.01~0.02 M. The hydrazine suppressed the reductive precipitation of Pd by the ascorbic acid.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.495-500
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• 2009

Actinide sorption to the geological materials can reduce the mobility and bioavailability of radionuclides released to the environment through the development of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. Under circumneutral pH conditions, actinide sorption can be enhanced by phosphate anions sorbed on oxide mineral surfaces as indicated by the sorption of trivalent lanthanide ions ($Ln^{3+}$), the chemical analog for trivalent actinide ions ($Ac^{3+}$). In this paper, we examined a ternary sorption system of trivalent europium ions ($Eu^{3+}$) sorbed onto boehmite (${\gamma}$-AlOOH) surfaces pre-sorbed with phosphate anions (${PO_4}^{3-}$), using extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy. In the Eu-$PO_4$-boehmite ternary sorption system, $EuPO_4$ surface precipitates were formed as implicated by Eu $L_{III}$-edge EXAFS spectroscopy. Phosphorus K-edge EXAFS fingerprinting indicated a bidentate mononuclear surface complex formation of phosphate sorbed on boehmite surfaces as well as $EuPO_4$ surface precipitate formation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.272-272
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• 2002

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.391-392
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• 2019