Evaluation of the stability of the full AmSel stripping system to recover americium from PUREX raffinate

The development of the fully closed nuclear fuel cycle represents a more sustainable approach to nuclear waste management. This advanced concept focuses on the reuse of U and Pu, but also on the separation of minor actinides, being Am the most relevant element from the point of view of heat and radiotoxicity. However, the separation of Am, particularly from Cm, remains a challenge due to their similar chemical properties. The AmSel process, a novel liquid-liquid extraction process designed to treat the streams coming from PUREX process, addresses this challenging separation. A limiting aspect for the development of these extraction systems is their resistance to harsh operating conditions, such as high nitric acid concentrations and radiation fields, which can cause degradation and reduced performance. This study collects a battery of batch extraction experiments to assess the resistance of the key step of the AmSel process, by simulating relevant operational conditions of the full stripping system, considering both phases. For that, the extraction behavior of the system has been evaluated after gamma radiation by gamma and alpha spectrometry, and correlated with the corresponding composition of each phase, organic and aqueous, which have been characterized by HPLC-MS and Quantitative Raman Spectroscopy, respectively.