Extraction of actinides and fission products by octyl(phenyl)-N,N-diisobutylcarbamoylmethyl-phosphine oxide from nitric acid media.

Extraction of promethium(III), uranium(VI), plutonium(IV), americium(III), zirconium(IV), ruthenium(III), iron(III) and palladium(II) has been carried out with a mixture of octyl(phenyl)-N,N-diisobutylcarbamoylmethylphosphine oxide (CMPO) and tributyl phosphate (TBP) in dodecane. The effects of nitric acid, TBP and CMPO concentrations on the extraction of these metal ions have been studied. The nature of the species of the above metal ions extracted into the organic phase has been suggested.

Potentiometric determination of plutonium by sodium bismuthate oxidation.

A potentiometric method for the determination of plutonium is described, in which the plutonium is quantitatively oxidized to plutonium(VI) with sodium bismuthate in nitric acid medium, the excess of oxidant is destroyed chemically and plutonium(VI) is reduced to plutonium(IV) with a measured excess of iron(II), the surplus of which is back-titrated with dichromate. For 3-5 mg of plutonium the error is less than 0.2%. For submilligram quantities of plutonium in presence of macro-amounts of uranium the error is below 2.0%.