The United States of America As Represented by the United States

University of California

Larry R Avens

Dallas D Hill

F Coyne Prenger

David L Clark

John G Watkin

Alfred P Sattelberger

Laura A Worl

Eddie A Trujillo

Jerry Foropoulos, Jr

Thomas L Tolt

Walter F Stewart

John R FitzPatrick

Bill D Zwick

Jerry G Dunn

A process of separating actinide-containing components from an admixture including forming a slurry including actinide-containing components within an admixture, said slurry including a dispersion-promoting surfactant, adjusting the pH of the slurry to within a desired range, and, passing said slurry through a pretreated matrix material, said matrix material adapted to generate high magnetic field gradients upon the application of a strong magnetic field exceeding about 0.1 Tesla whereupon a portion of said actinide-containing components are separated from said slurry and remain adhered upon said matrix material is provided.

Process to remove actinides from soil using magnetic separation

A compound of the formula MX.sub.n L.sub.m wherein M is a metal atom selected from the group consisting of thorium, plutonium, neptunium or americium, X is a halide atom, n is an integer selected from the group of three or four, L is a coordinating ligand selected from the group consisting of aprotic Lewis bases having an oxygen-, nitrogen-, sulfur-, or phosphorus-donor, and m is an integer selected from the group of three or four for monodentate ligands or is the integer two for bidentate ligands, where the sum of n+m equals seven or eight for monodentate ligands or five or six for bidentate ligands, a compound of the formula MX.sub.n wherein M, X, and n are as previously defined, and a process of preparing such actinide metal compounds including admixing the actinide metal in an aprotic Lewis base as a coordinating solvent in the presence of a halogen-containing oxidant, are provided.

Actinide halide complexes

A process of preparing anhydrous actinide metal trichlorides of plutonium or neptunium by reacting an aqueous solution of an actinide metal trichloride selected from the group consisting of plutonium trichloride or neptunium trichloride with a reducing agent capable of converting the actinide metal from an oxidation state of +4 to +3 in a resultant solution, evaporating essentially all the solvent from the resultant solution to yield an actinide trichloride hydrate material, dehydrating the actinide trichloride hydrate material by heating the material in admixture with excess thionyl chloride, and recovering anhydrous actinide trichloride is provided.

Dehydration of plutonium or neptunium trichloride hydrate

Method for removal of plutonium impurity from americium oxides and fluorides. AmF.sub.4 is not further oxidized to AmF.sub.6 by the application of O.sub.2 F at room temperature, while plutonium compounds present in the americium sample are fluorinated to volatile PuF.sub.6, which can readily be separated therefrom, leaving the purified americium oxides and/or fluorides as the solid tetrafluoride.

Method for removal of plutonium impurity from americium oxides and

Growing community of inventors

Los Alamos, NM, United States of America

Larry R Avens