Purification of uranium product from plutonium contamination using acetohydroxamic acid (AHA) based process

Acetohydroxamic acid (AHA) based uranium product purification process to remove plutonium was optimized. For this process, equilibrium data was generated to optimize AHA concentration and acidity of stripping agent/scrubbing agent. Two options namely (i) Pu complexation in aqueous phase followed by extraction and scrubbing ii) extraction followed by scrubbing with AHA were studied. Results of these studies indicate that U product obtained in AHA purification is near to the table top specification and also quantitative Pu recovery from the AHA strip product is possible by oxalate precipitation.