Influence of dose rate on the radiolytic stability of a BTBP solvent for actinide(III)/lanthanide(III) separation

The recently developed ligand MF2-BTBP dissolved in cyclohexanone is a promising solvent for the group separation of trivalent actinides(Ill) from the lanthanides(Ill). Its high stability against nitric acid has been demonstrated recently. Since the solvent is also exposed to a continuously high radiation level in the counter current process, the radiolytic stability of the solvent was examined in this study. Irradiation experiments were carried out up to an absorbed dose of 100 kGy and the effect of the dose rate was investigated. The extraction behaviour for An(III)/Ln(III) separation was studied after radiolysis for evaluation. It was found that during high dose rate irradiation the extraction efficiency for both Am(III) and Eu(III) decreased significantly with increasing absorbed dose, whereas during the low dose rate irradiation the extraction efficiencies remained more or less at the same level.