Mutual separation of Am and Cm using ADAAM (alkyl DiAmide AMine) and reduction of volumes for liquid waste generated via batch-wise multistage extractions

Sasaki, Yuji  ; Kaneko, Masashi   ; Ban, Yasutoshi  ; Suzuki, Hideya*

The mutual separation of Am and Cm is conducted using an alkyl-diamide amine (ADAAM) extractant. ADAAM exhibits extremely high separation factor with respect to Am and Cm separation (5.9) in a nitric acid--dodecane system. The batch-wise multistage extractions are performed using a system containing 0.2 M ADAAM and 1.5 M nitric acid. In this multistage extraction, an organic solvent give 96.5% and 1.06% yields of Am and Cm. After the mutual separation of Am and Cm, an additional extraction step is included to reduce the volumes of these aqueous and organic phases. Taking these steps, Am and Cm can be recovered in just two or three stages in the aqueous phases.