Transuranium removal from Hanford High Level Waste simulants using sodium permanganate and calcium

Hanford High Level Waste will require processing to reduce the concentratio n of various actinide elements prior to encapsulation into low activity gla ss for disposition. High level waste at Hanford contains elevated actinide concentrations in the supernate because of organic complexants present in t he tanks. Traditional removal strategies are not viable processing sequence s for the Hanford tanks containing complexants. Reported here is a novel ac tinide decontamination strategy. This pretreatment sequence consists of add ition of calcium nitrate and sodium permanganate The observed optimum decon tamination efficiencies for plutonium and americium are more than 99.5%.