Isolation of Plutonium in the Course of REE/TPE Separation by Displacement Complexing Chromatography

Abstract

Isolation of Pu from a TPE/REE mixture by displacement complexing chromatography on KU-2 cation-exchange resin was studied. To stabilize Pu in the trivalent state, the sorption of the mixture components from the initial solutions was performed in the presence of hydrazine nitrate. To convert Pu to the tetravalent state, H₂O₂ was added to the DTPA solution used as an eluent. The influence of temperature and H₂O₂ concentration on the chromatographic isolation of Pu was studied. Optimum conditions were found for separating Pu from TPE and REE.