Micro-PIXE analysis on adsorbent of extraction chromatography for MA(III) recovery

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has been conducting research and development of MA(III) recovery from high level liquid waste (HLLW) by extraction chromatography technology for reduction in amount and environmental impact of radioactive waste. The behavior of adsorbed cations inside the adsorbent packed in a column is necessary to be evaluated for improvement of the adsorbent or flow-sheet to achieve targeted MA(III) recovery performance. In this paper, micro-PIXE analysis was carried out on the particles sampled from various positions of the column to reveal the behavior of cations inside the packed column with CMPO/SiO2-P adsorbent using RE(III) as simulated elements of MA(III). Simple experiment and data analysis were shown to be effective to reveal inside of the column, and formation and transportation of the adsorption bands were observed for some cations which are extractable by the CMPO extractant. Some part of Zr(IV) and Mo(VI) were found to remain inside the column without distinct transportation even after the elution operation. Those results will contribute to design more practical MA(III) recovery flow-sheet.