Potential applications of sonochemistry in spent nuclear fuel reprocessing: A short review

The industrial treatment of spent nuclear fuel is based upon a hydrometallurgical process in nitric acid medium. In order to minimize the volume of radioactive waste it seems interesting to generate the reactive species in situ in such solutions using ultrasonic irradiation without addition of salt-forming reagents. This review summarizes for the first time the versatile sonochemical processes with uranium, neptunium and plutonium in homogeneous nitric acid solutions and heterogeneous systems. The dissolution of refractory solids, ultrasonically driven liquid–liquid extraction and the sonochemical degradation of the volatile products of organic solvent radiolysis issued from PUREX process are considered. Also the guidelines for required further work to ensure successful application of the studied processes at industrial scale are discussed.