SUMMARYH-Canyon Engineering requested the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) to perform two solvent extraction experiments using dissolved Super Kukla (SK) material. The SK material is an uranium (U)-molybdenum (Mo) alloy material of 90% U/10% Mo by weight with 20% 235 U enrichment. The first series of solvent extraction tests involved a series of batch distribution coefficient measurements with 7.5 vol % tributylphosphate (TBP)/n-paraffin for extraction from 4-5 M nitric acid (HNO 3 ), using 4 M HNO 3 -0.02 M ferrous sulfamate (Fe(SO 3 NH 2 ) 2 ) scrub, 0.01 M HNO 3 strip steps with particular emphasis on the distribution of U and Mo in each step. The second set of solvent extraction tests determined whether the 2.5 wt % sodium carbonate (Na 2 CO 3 ) solvent wash change frequency would need to be modified for the processing of the SK material.The batch distribution coefficient measurements were performed using dissolved SK material diluted to 20 g/L (U + Mo) in 4 M HNO 3 and 5 M HNO 3 . In these experiments, U had a distribution coefficient greater than 2.5 while at least 99% of the nickel (Ni) and greater than 99.9% of the Mo remained in the aqueous phase. After extraction, scrub, and strip steps, the aqueous U product from the strip contains nominally 7.48 µg Mo/g U, significantly less than the maximum allowable limit of 800 µg Mo/g U.Solvent washing experiments were performed to expose a 2.5 wt % Na 2 CO 3 solvent wash solution to the equivalent of 37 solvent wash cycles. The low Mo batch distribution coefficient in this solvent extraction system yields only 0.001-0.005 g/L Mo extracted to the organic. During the solvent washing experiments, the Mo appears to wash from the organic.

Testing was performed to determine the chloride (Cl-) removal capabilities of the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) designed and built Clwashing equipment intended for HB-Line installation. The equipment to be deployed was tested using a cerium oxide (CeO 2) based simulant in place of the 3013 plutonium oxide (PuO 2) material. Two different simulant mixtures were included in this testing-one having higher Clcontent than the other. The higher Clsimulant was based on K-Area Interim Surveillance Inspection Program (KIS) material with Clcontent approximately equal to 70,000 ppm. The lower Cllevel simulant was comparable to KIS material containing approximately 8,000-ppm Clcontent. The performance testing results indicate that the washer is capable of reducing the Clcontent of both surrogates to below 200 ppm with three ½-liter washes of 0.1M sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution. Larger wash volumes were used with similar results-all of the prescribed test parameters consistently reduced the Clcontent of the surrogate to a value below 200 ppm Clin the final washed surrogate material. The washer uses a 20-micron filter to retain the surrogate solids. Tests showed that 0.16-0.41% of the insoluble fraction of the starting mass passed through the 20-micron filter. The solids retention performance indicates that the fissile masses passing through the 20-micron filter should not exceed the waste acceptance criteria for discard in grout to TRU waste.

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