Analysis of the Nuclear waste Extractants BTP and BTBP using LCMS

Faculty Sponsor

Julie R Peller

College

Arts and Sciences

Discipline(s)

Chemistry

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Spring 5-3-2018

Abstract

BTP-tetra-sulfonic acid and BTBP-tetra-sulfonic acid are compounds used as extractants in the recovery process of actinides from discharged nuclear fuel. Actinides consists of fifteen metallic elements which range in atomic numbers from 89 to 103 in the periodic table. They are all heavy, radioactive and extremely unstable elements. Uranium and Plutonium are the two main actinides used as nuclear fuel. The purpose of the recovery is to separate the nuclides which contribute most to the long-term radiotoxicity of nuclear waste and to transform them into short lived or stable nuclides. Since these compounds are used to extract radioactive elements, it is important to understand the stability of these compounds to radioactivity. Therefore, they were subjected to different doses of gamma radiation. The concentrations of BTP-tetra-sulfonic acid, Na salt and BTBP-tetra-sulfonic acid, Na salt in standard solutions and samples containing different time of irradiation were successfully measured using the Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LCMS) method. Standard solutions (64 uM, 128uM, 142 uM) and irradiated samples were analyzed using selected ion recording (SIR) in the LCMS method. Peak areas of 862 g/mol (BTP-tetra-sulfonic acid) and 939 g/mol (BTBP-tetra-sulfonic acid) were collected and used to determine the concentrations of BTP-tetra-sulfonic acid and BTBP-tetra-sulfonic acid, Na salt. Similar to what is predicted by models, the increasing time of irradiation leads to a decrease in the concentrations of BTP-tetra-sulfonic acid and BTBP-tetra-sulfonic acid, Na salt.

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