Separation of transplutonium and rare-earth elements by extraction with HDEHP from DTPA solutions

The extraction behaviour of Am, Cm, Bk, Cf, Es, La, Ce, Pr, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Ho, Yb and Lu in the system HDEHP—DTPA in lactic acid has been studied from the point of view of group separation of the transplutonium and rare-earth elements. Optimum separation conditions have been found on the basis of the results obtained. Some test separations of transplutonium elements from rare-earth fission products have been carried out in real solutions by extraction chromatography. It has been shown that this method can be used successfully for the analytical determination of transplutonium elements as well as for recovery of the latter from irradiated samples.