Nuclear and Environmental Processes

For more than sixty years Argonne National Laboratory has been a world leader in the development of nuclear technologies. The Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division and its predecessors have had an important role in these developments, advancing the science of actinide chemistry and innovating solutions for the “back end” of the nuclear fuel cycle. Today our researchers are at the forefront in the development of technologies for nuclear separations, waste management, and non-proliferation to achieve sustainable nuclear energy.

Programs in our nuclear and environmental processes thrust are organized into four areas.

Heavy Element and Separations Science

Basic science research of heavy element and fission product atomic and molecular-scale chemistry with focus on actinide aggregation in solution and precipitates, metal-ligand interactions, and electronic properties. Researchers are using novel instruments at the Advanced Photon Source to elucidate the electronic structure and magnetic properties of actinide nanoclusters, providing new insights into their behavior in separations processes and their migration in the environment. In related studies, they are designing, synthesizing, and characterizing chelating agents for metals separations and recovery.

Interfacial Processes

Basic science research of minera/water interactions to advance the fundamental understanding of geochemical processes important to predicting the performance of geological repositories. Researchers are deploying advanced in-situ spectroscopy and imaging techniques to explore mineral surface hydration, ion adsorption structures, and mineral growth and dissolution processes.

Process Chemistry and Engineering

Application of integrated expertise in chemical engineering and actinide chemistry to develop, model, design, and demonstrate solvent extraction processes for spent fuel and radioactive waste treatment, and nuclear nonproliferation. For the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative, researchers invented, demonstrated, and continue to develop the UREX+ suite of multistage solvent extraction process for selective recovery of fission products in spent fuel. For the DOE’s Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors program, researchers are developing the separation technologies required to produce the medical isotope molybdenum-99 from low-enriched uranium targets.

Nuclear Technology

Application of multidisciplinary expertise to innovate, develop, and engineer commercially viable electrochemical processes for nuclear separations. Researchers are developing novel processes for the recovery of actinides and stabilization of fission products from metal, oxide, carbide, nitride, and other advanced nuclear reactor fuels. Recent inventions include high-throughput uranium electrorefining and electrolytic oxide reduction.