Recycling of isotopically modified molybdenum from irradiated CerMet nuclear fuel: part 4—technetium separation from concentrated molybdate solution

Uranium-free molybdenum-based CerMet fuels can be applied for transmutation of minor actinides in GEN IV reactors or ADS. In a reprocessing concept designed in the first paper in this mini-series (Mareš and John in J Radioanal Nucl Chem 320(1):227–233, 2019 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-019-06456-2 ) the residual radionuclidic impurities need to be separated from slightly alkaline (pH 9.1) highly concentrated ammonium molybdate solutions. Screening tests of technetium extraction onto three extraction chromatographic materials were performed in present study. Solid extractants based on Aliquat ® 336 turned out to be the most promising for Tc extraction from molybdenum solutions both from the point of view of the extraction kinetics and the practical extraction capacity. The overall results of this mini-series allowed to conclude that if the molybdenum recycling concept proposed is adopted, separation of the residual radionuclidic impurities should not represent a significant problem.