Hollow fibre supported liquid membranes for nuclear fuel cycle applications: A review

Abstract

This article gives a comprehensive review on hollow fibre supported liquid membrane based methods for the separation of actinides, lanthanides and fission elements in nuclear fuel cycle applications. The nuclear fuel cycle operations result in large volumes wastes containing long-lived actinides and fission elements which need to be remediated before their release into the environment. The routinely used methods for such wastes treatments are precipitation, solvent extraction and ion-exchange. However, these traditional methods lead to solid waste generation, use of large volumes of toxic/inflammable chemicals and suffer with slow processing issues. In the past few decades, attempts have been made to explore the supported liquid membrane based separation methods using hollow fibre contactors with highly encouraging results. This article gives a comprehensive account of studies on hollow fibre supported liquid membrane aimed at separations relevant to the back-end of nuclear fuel cycle.

Keywords

• Hollow fibre
• Liquid membrane
• Separation
• Nuclear fuel cycle
• Radioactive waste treatment