Separation of thorium and uranium in nitric acid solution using silica based anion exchange resin

- A novel silica based anion exchange resin to separate thorium and uranium.
- Uranium and thorium could be separated and recovered rapidly due to the good kinetics of the silica based resin.
- It could provide a way to recover few thorium from large amount of uranium.
- It may be a solution to the 228Th and its radiological hazard of the reprocessed nuclear fuels.

To separate thorium and uranium in nitric acid solution using anion exchange process, a strong base silica-based anion exchange resin (SiPyR-N4) was synthesized. Batch experiments were conducted and the separation factor of thorium and uranium in 9 M nitric acid was about 10. Ion exchange chromatography was applied to separate thorium and uranium in different ratios. Uranium could be eluted by 9 M nitric acid and thorium was eluted by 0.1 M nitric acid. It was proved that thorium and uranium can be separated and recovered successfully by this method.