Extraction chromatographic separation of uranium and fission products in the system di-(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid-hydrochloric acid

An elution scheme has been developed for obtaining separate fission product and uranium fractions using extraction chromatographic techniques with di-(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid as a stationary phase and HCl of varying concentration as eluting agent. The investigations have been concentrated on the fission products cerium, europium, molybdenum and zirconium. The elution of zirconium by oxalic acid is characterized by a peak broadening and has been explained by considering extraction kinetics. Experiments on column performance with different support materials have proved Ftoroplast-4 and Celite Hyflo Super Cel to be capable of giving column fillings with equal separation ability.