Study on degradation properties of NBP precipitant by -ray irradiation

Nogami, Masanobu*; Sugiyama, Yuichi*; Kawasaki, Takeshi*; Harada, Masayuki*; Kawata, Yoshihisa; Morita, Yasuji  ; Kikuchi, Toshiaki*; Ikeda, Yasuhisa*

As a part of the development of a novel reprocessing system for spent FBR fuels based on the precipitation method, influence of concentrations of HNO on the stability by -ray irradiation was examined for --butyl-2-pyrrolidone (NBP), a candidate precipitant for the first precipitation step for selectively precipitating U(VI). The residual ratios of the samples for HNO solutions up to 3 M were found to be decreased identically, where ca. 20% of NBP was degraded after the irradiation of 1 MGy. It was found that the degradation of the samples of 6 M HNO is more distinguished, where ca. 30% was degraded after the irradiation of 0.1 MGy. As the result of the investigation of the degradation mechanism of NBP, it was revealed that the degradation started from the cleavage of the pyrrolidone ring of NBP by the addition of oxygen atom, followed by the formation of chain monoamides and C4 compounds by the continuous addition of oxygen, leading to the generation of oxalic acid.