Investigation on the separation of Sr-90 from high-level liquid waste and the supply of Y-90 for medical application at a Reprocessing Research Facility

Saga, Kaname

JAEA-Review 2025-003, 23 Pages, 2025/05

JAEA-Review-2025-003.pdf:1.08MB

Diagnosis and treatment using radioisotopes (RI) in the medical field contribute to improving people's welfare. However, almost all medical RI distributed in Japan are imported from overseas. As a result, geopolitical influences and natural disasters lead to difficulties for importing them. Based on these backgrounds, in Japan, a specialized subcommittee on the production and utilization of medical radioisotopes was established within the Atomic Energy Commission, and in May 2022, it formulated the "Action Plan for Promotion of Production and Utilization of Medical Radioisotopes." Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) launched the NXR Development Center in FY2024 to separate and recycle valuable elements contained in high-level liquid waste (HLLW). The advantages of using HLLW are that it contains a wide variety of nuclides and in large quantities. Therefore, this report focused on the RI contained in HLLW and evaluated whether it can be supplied for medical use. Specifically, the target supply amount of Sr-90, the parent nuclide of Y-90 approved as a RI for medical use, and the amount of Sr-90 in HLLW were estimated. Based on the estimation, the feasibility of separating medical RI from HLLW in a reprocessing research facility was evaluated. As a result, the HLLW possibly contains an amount of RI equivalent to the domestic medical demand. Although it depends on the RI concentration in the HLLW, a small volume of HLLW, ranging from a few hundred milliliters to a few liters, could potentially produce an amount of medical RI equivalent to domestic demand. In addition, the equipment already installed in research facilities, such as NUCEF at JAEA, may be sufficient to produce the medical RI. It may be possible to meet domestic medical demand for Sr-90, as a source of Y-90, by processing a few hundred milliliters to a few liters of HLLW using an existing research facility.

Comparisons of the masking effect of carboxylic, amic-acidic, and amidic compounds on lanthanides and Am complexation

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

Solvent Extraction Research and Development, Japan, 32(1), p.21 - 29, 2025/00

https://doi.org/10.15261/serdj.32.21

The magnitude of the masking effect of carboxylic, amic-acidic, and amidic compounds through Ln and Am extractions by tetraoctyl diglycolamide (TODGA) is compared. The compounds used are diglycol, ethylenediamine, diethylenetriamine-type, and two other amides (dioxaoctane diamide and nitrylotriacetamide). The results show that below pH 1.2, where carboxylic acids are less dissociated, amide O atoms have higher reactivity with lanthanides than O atoms in carboxyl groups. From observing the Ln patterns (D(Ln) vs. their atomic number), the compounds primarily show high reactivity, with middle and heavy Ln having a higher charge density than light Ln. Four amide compounds are employed in this work. Those with tertiary amine N atoms have pH dependence on D(Ln) due to protonation and dissociation from amine N atoms.

Investigation on partitioning and utilization of valuable elements and radio isotopes from spent nuclear fuel

Saga, Kaname

JAEA-Review 2024-038, 9 Pages, 2024/09

JAEA-Review-2024-038.pdf:0.88MB

The purpose of this report is understanding the elements and radio isotopes with highly useful based on the current trends in the industrial field. The survey was conducted from the viewpoint of the abundance of elements and radio isotopes contained and the demand in the industrial field, and the following survey results were obtained. The economic scale of radio isotopes in the industrial field (including radiation use) has been increasing in recent years in the manufacturing, medical, and agricultural sectors. On the other hand, the domestic production of the utilized radio isotope is still small, and some radio isotopes are entirely imported. Radio isotopes such as Sr-90, Mo-100, Cs-137, and Am-241 from spent fuel are suitable for industrial use because of their abundance in spent fuel and half-lives. As for the utilization of elements, the industrial use of platinum group elements and rare earth elements were explored because these elements are high industrial value and low domestic self-sufficiency. The platinum group elements were evaluated to have the potential to be supplied in a certain amount as a new domestic production source based on their abundance in spent fuel. On the other hand, for rare earth elements, which have also low self-sufficiency rate, the ratio of the amount that could be supplied from spent fuel compared to the current annual supply was evaluated to be less than 1%, and therefore, no effect could be expected. The domestic recycling rate of rare earth elements is low, and the provision of numerical simulation technology, which improves the recycling rate, could highly contribute to the industries. This technology makes it possible to calculate the optimal operating conditions for the separation process, such as the number of processing stages and processing speed, in accordance with the elements to be separated and used.

Adsorption behavior of platinum-group metals and Co-existing metal ions from simulated high-level liquid waste using HONTA and Crea impregnated adsorbent

Osawa, Naoki*; Kim, S.-Y.*; Kubota, Masahiko*; Wu, H.*; Watanabe, So; Ito, Tatsuya; Nagaishi, Ryuji

Nuclear Engineering and Technology, 56(3), p.812 - 818, 2024/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2023.09.001

Angular momentum transfer in multinucleon transfer reactions; Reaching the Island of Stability in the heaviest element region

Nishio, Katsuhisa

Isotope News, (785), p.36 - 40, 2023/02

https://www.jrias.or.jp/pdf/2302_TRACER_NISHIO.pdf

no abstracts in English

Extreme chemistry of superheavy elements

Sato, Tetsuya; Nagame, Yuichiro*

Nihon Butsuri Gakkai-Shi, 78(2), p.64 - 72, 2023/02

https://doi.org/10.11316/butsuri.78.2_64

The study of the chemistry of superheavy elements, which are located in the heavy extremes of the periodic table, has made considerable progress over the past 20 years, and new approaches based on various ideas have recently been developed. Research groups in Japan have also made significant contributions to the development of research on superheavy elements. Recently, notable results have been reported for the transactinide elements rutherfordium (element 104), dubnium (element 105), and seaborgium (element 106), and the heavy actinides with atomic numbers exceeding 100. The review will focus on the recent main results of these elements. This review outlines the main recent results and touches on future prospects.

Extraction properties of trivalent rare earth ions from nitric acid using a triamide-amine extractant

Uchino, Seiko*; Narita, Hirokazu*; Kita, Keisuke*; Suzuki, Hideya*; Matsumura, Tatsuro; Naganawa, Hirochika*; Sakaguchi, Koichi*; Oto, Keisuke*

Solvent Extraction Research and Development, Japan, 30(1), p.39 - 46, 2023/00

https://doi.org/10.15261/serdj.30.39

The extraction of trivalent rare earth ions (RE) from HNO solution using a triamide amine, tris(N,N-di-2-ethylhexyl-ethylamide)amine (DEHTAA), was conducted, and the extraction mechanism was estimated from extraction behavior of HNO and RE and the relationship between atomic number and extraction percentages (E%) for RE. A DEHTAA molecule dominantly formed a DEHTAA HNO at 1.0 M HNO and a DEHTAA(HNO) at 6.0 M HNO in the acid-equilibrated organic phase. This would provide the unique dependence of E% for the light RE on the HNO concentration, in which the E% value had a minimum and maximum at 0.5 M and 2 M HNO, respectively. The results of the slope analyses for the distribution ratios for RE suggested that the dominant RE complex was RE(NO)DEHTAA(DEHTAA HNO) at 1.0 M HNO. The E% for RE decreased from La to Lu at 1.0 M HNO; on the other hand, those increased from La to Nd at 0.25 M and from La to Sm and 6.0 M HNO.

Extraction behavior of a novel functionalized ionic liquid for separation of platinum group metals from aqueous nitric acid solution

Ito, Tatsuya; Osugi, Haruka*; Osawa, Naoki*; Takahashi, Tadayuki*; Kim, S.-Y.*; Nagaishi, Ryuji

Analytical Sciences, 38(1), p.91 - 97, 2022/01

https://doi.org/10.2116/analsci.21P057

A novel ionic liquid (IL) functionalized with thiodiglycol amic acid containing a soft S donor was synthesized for the effective and efficient extraction of platinum group metals (Ru, Rh, and Pd) from aqueous nitric acid solutions, such as high-level radioactive liquid waste (HLLW). The IL allowed a rapid extraction of Pd(II) with an extraction ratio of approximately 100%. The extractions of Ru(III) and Rh(III) by the IL were slower than that of Pd(II), but the rates were accelerated by temperature elevation. The extractions of Ru(III) and Rh(III) at 50C reached equilibrium within 4 and 8 h, respectively, with the extraction ratios of over 90% without assisting agents or other methods for the extraction system. Furthermore, the IL could extract more than 90% of Ru(III), Rh(III), and Pd(II) from the simulated HLLW within 2 h at 50C.

Multi-stage extraction and separation of Ln and An using TODGA and DTBA or DTPA accompanying pH adjustment with lactic acid and ethylenediamine

Sasaki, Yuji; Kaneko, Masashi; Ban, Yasutoshi; Matsumiya, Masahiko*; Nakase, Masahiko*; Takeshita, Kenji*

Separation Science and Technology, 57(16), p.2543 - 2553, 2022/00

https://doi.org/10.1080/01496395.2022.2080707

The mutual separation of actinides (An) from lanthanides (Ln) using the masking agent of DTPA (diethylenetriamine-pentaacetic acid) or DTBA (diethylenetriamine-triacetic acid-bis(diethylacetamide)) in the aqueous phase through DGA extraction, referring TALSPEAK method, is focused. We investigate to obtain the same separation performance using commercially available DTPA on that using DTBA. In this work, we select lactic acid (LA) of pH buffer from 10 organic acids and ethylenediamine (ED) for the pH adjustment. Almost the same D and SF values are obtained among the conditions: TODGA-DTPA-LA-NaOH, TODGA-DTPA-LA-ED, and TODGA-DTBA-LA. The experimental results using batchwise multi-stage extractions show the average yields of Ln (La to Gd) and Am to be 3.73 and 98.1% in the aqueous phase using DGA-DTPA-LA-ED, to be 3.1 and 97.0% using DGA-DTPA-LA-NaOH, and to be 1.61 and 98.7% using DGA-DTBA-LA.

Super adsorbent for removing harmful metals using pig bone waste

Nankawa, Takuya; Sekine, Yurina

Isotope News, (778), p.34 - 35, 2021/12

A high-performance adsorbent was synthesized by reaction of waste bone and sodium hydrogen carbonate. Since waste bones are inexpensive and well-supplied materials, it has the potential to be used for a wide range of decontamination and removal of harmful metals.