SEPARATIONS CHEMISTRY FOR ACTINIDE ELEMENTS - RECENT DEVELOPMENTS ANDHISTORICAL-PERSPECTIVE

With the end of the cold war, the principal mission in actinide separa tions has changed from production of plutonium to cleanup of the immen se volume of moderately radioactive mixed wastes which resulted from f ifty years of processing activities. In order to approach the cleanup task from a proper perspective, it is necessary to understand how the wastes were generated. Most of the key separations techniques central to actinide production were developed in the 40's and 50's for the ide ntification and production of actinide elements. Total actinide recove ry, lanthanide/actinide separations, and selective partitioning of act inides from inert constituents are currently of primary concern. To re spond to the modern world of actinide separations, new techniques are being developed for separations ranging from analytical methods to det ect ultra-trace concentrations (for bioassay and environmental monitor ing) to large-scale waste treatment procedures. In this report, the hi story of actinide separations, both the basic science and production a spects, is examined and evaluated in terms of contemporary priorities.