EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE SEPARATION OF AQUEOUS ENTRAINMENTSFROM TRI-N-BUTYL PHOSPHATE BY ELECTRIC-FIELDS

The effectiveness of static and pulsed electric fields in separating e ntrainments with radioactive contamination from the PUREX process is i nvestigated A laboratory-scale electric separator operating in the bat ch mode was developed for this purpose. The entrainment was labeled wi th Eu-152. The influences of electric field strength, poise frequency, mean residence time of the dispersion, and fraction of entrainment ar e presented. The residual entrainment in the dispersion can be reduced to below 5% of the initial value normally in less than 4 minutes, dep ending on the indicated parameters.