Effect of ionizing radiation on solvent extraction systems for the separation of minor actinides

Minor actinides and long living fission products, are largely responsible for the radiotoxicity and heat production of spent nuclear fuel on the long term. During the last decades, significant scientific and technical progress has been made in Europe for R&D on the selective extraction of minor actinides from spent fuel. This task was made challenging by the chemical similarity of actinides and lanthanides, but also by their unfavourable relative abundances in the PUREX highly active raffinate. Different molecules for this purpose were developed in European projects. The aim of the PhD project is to study the effect of ionizing radiation on extraction systems  used for the selective extraction of minor actinides, both the organic solvent and the used ligands will be investigated. The scope of the research will be on the earlier developed GANEX and SANEX extraction systems.