| Abstract Scope |
A new aqueous recovery lab for plutonium installed at LLNL features mirror glovebox lines, which result in a high degree of flexibility while still meeting LLNL missions. Different variables, isotopics, or process conditions can be explored in one line, while maintaining ideal conditions in another. The capabilities stood up are a nitric acid-based purification process. Dissolution, anion exchange, and oxalate precipitation are employed to recover pure plutonium oxide product. The resulting purified plutonium oxide is then sent to pyrochemical processing. At LLNL the complete pyrochemical flowsheet has been demonstrated at small scale (100 – 200 g) allowing for the creation of custom alloys and isotopic compositions. Recently, partial direct oxide reduction, molten salt extraction, electrorefining, and alloying were used to produce an Accelerated Aged Alloy of plutonium. Here we present the features of the aqueous recovery laboratory in greater detail and the equipment modifications that enable small scale pyrochemical processing. |