A Review of Opportunities and Methods for Recovery of Rhodium from Spent Nuclear Fuel during Reprocessing

Hodgson, Ben; Turner, Joshua; Holdsworth, Alistair F.

doi:10.3390/jne4030034

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 138 publications

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“…This would require separated MAs to be stored until such a time as suitable reactors for transmuting them (i.e., SFRs, see below) can be brought online, though extended burning in thermal-spectrum reactors could sufficiently lower the concentrations of these species [49,50] at the expense of reduced neutron economy [51]. The recovery or recycling of other valuable resources present in SNF, such as strategic elements (PGMs: Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag; REEs: Y, La-Dy; NGs: He, Kr, Xe), useful isotopes [17,25,52,53], and high-purity zircalloy cladding has been proposed over the years but not implemented as of yet [54]. This would serve to increase the efficiency of the NFC by recovering unconventional or presently untapped resources, potentially offsetting or even eliminating the high costs of reprocessing and other fuel cycle costs, and reducing waste volumes for final disposals, though technological and regulatory hurdles may not be surmountable in the short time frames necessary for the construction of new SNF reprocessing plants, given the essential impossibility of retrofitting such operations [55].…”

Section: Stage One: Short-term Expansion and Establishment Of Sustain...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Navigating the Path of Least Resistance to Sustainable, Widespread Adoption of Nuclear Power

Holdsworth,

Ireland

2024

Sustainability

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With climate change rapidly accelerating, we must seriously reconsider our inconsistent and, at times, disjointed approach to energy grid decarbonisation by applying extant low-carbon technologies rapidly and at scale rather than continuing to rely on fossil fuel generation. In contrast to more transient renewables such as wind and solar energy, nuclear power is capable of reliably generating large quantities of baseload low-carbon energy. Despite this advantage, however, deployment has stagnated due to a combination of high costs, safety concerns, and an unwillingness of political authorities to commit to a large-scale, publicly funded program. The focus on private sector leadership in R&D has resulted in a smorgasbord of under-developed and conceptual reactor and fuel cycle technologies, many of which are a decade or more from commercial viability. Meanwhile, the aforementioned political issues have prevented the necessary long-term funding, incentivisation, or provision of the necessary market structures for the significant construction of actual generating plants. With this in mind, we present a potential path to a long-term sustainable approach to the nuclear fuel cycle, highlighting key reactor and fuel cycle technologies and providing an overview of how these should be implemented. Additionally, we discuss the industrial, political, and societal changes needed to achieve this through the comprehensive management of both waste and resources.

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Section: Stage One: Short-term Expansion and Establishment Of Sustain...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Navigating the Path of Least Resistance to Sustainable, Widespread Adoption of Nuclear Power

Holdsworth,

Ireland

2024

Sustainability

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Molecular dynamics and experimental investigation of rhodium recovery mechanisms from triphenylphosphine hydroxy-rhodium catalysts

Zhou,

Guo,

Chen

et al. 2025

Separation and Purification Technology

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Utility of Interchangeable Coordination Modes of N,N′-Dialkyl-2,6-pyridinediamide Tridentate Pincer Ligands for Solvent Extraction of Pd(II) and Zr(IV) from High-Level Radioactive Liquid Waste

Orino,

Cao,

Tashiro

et al. 2024

Inorg. Chem.

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A new class of ligands, N,N′-dialkyl-2,6-pyridinediamide (DRPDA), has been designed with the specific intention of exhibiting interchangeable diversity in coordination modes, including organometallic interactions, for the purpose of solvent extraction of elements relevant to the proper treatment of highlevel radioactive liquid waste (HLLW) generated after nuclear fuel reprocessing. Consequently, DRPDA has been observed to extract Pd(II) and Zr(IV) from HNO 3 (aq) to 1-octanol in nearly quantitative yields when the selected ligand is sufficiently hydrophobic. However, concomitance of some of other HLLW components were also found. The extraction selectivity toward Pd(II) and Zr(IV) was markedly enhanced by employing ndodecane instead of 1-octanol as evidenced by good distribution ratios (D M ) of Pd(II) (D Pd = 72.5) and Zr(IV) (D Zr = 12.9), which is several orders of magnitude greater than D M 's of other HLLW components (10 −3 −10 −2 ), where addition of 20 vol % 1-octanol is still required to accelerate the extraction kinetics. Despite direct contact with the highly acidic aqueous phase, deprotonation from one of the amide NH moieties of DRPDA proceeds to form [Pd(DRPDA − )(NO 3 )] as a good extractables in the current biphasic system. This Pd(II) complex with a rather unique asymmetric N − ^N^O tridentate coordination was characterized by SCXRD, elemental analysis and 1 H NMR, and theoretically corroborated by DFT calculations and NBO analysis. In contrast, DRPDA also interacts with Zr 4+ in different tridentate O^N^O mode without any deprotonation. Based on mechanistic differences in the extraction chemistry we clarified, Pd(II) and Zr(IV) coextracted to the organic phase were recovered stepwise by using appropriate stripping agents such as 1.0 M HCl(aq) and 0.10 M HNO 3 (aq), respectively.

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A Review of Opportunities and Methods for Recovery of Rhodium from Spent Nuclear Fuel during Reprocessing

Cited by 5 publications

References 138 publications

Navigating the Path of Least Resistance to Sustainable, Widespread Adoption of Nuclear Power

Navigating the Path of Least Resistance to Sustainable, Widespread Adoption of Nuclear Power

Molecular dynamics and experimental investigation of rhodium recovery mechanisms from triphenylphosphine hydroxy-rhodium catalysts

Utility of Interchangeable Coordination Modes of N,N′-Dialkyl-2,6-pyridinediamide Tridentate Pincer Ligands for Solvent Extraction of Pd(II) and Zr(IV) from High-Level Radioactive Liquid Waste

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