Study of the formation, prevention, and recovery of plutonium from plutonium esters in the Purex process

The Savannah River Plant uses the basic Purex process to separate /sup 239/Pu from /sup 238/U and fission products. Dark-brown, dense solids containing up to 30% Pu have previously occurred in rotameters in the plutonium finishing operations. The kinetics of formation of this mixture of DBP- and MBP-Pu esters suggest two methods to prevent the formation of the solids. A selective dissolution method using NaOH metathesis has been developed to separate the phosphate ester from the plutonium before dissolution of the residual plutonium hydroxide in a HNO/sub 3/-HF medium.