Re: request for info on PUREX

[RuthWeiner@AOL.COM]

I would contact the librarian at the DOE technical library at Hanford.  I would have your library do a search using MEDLARS (or a similar search function) and try to get the documents from interlibrary loan, as they are probably not available electronically.  I do have some documents describing PUREX, but it would be far better to get them from the library.


Also, how good a chemist is your friend?  I hate to sound like a chemist elitist snob (which I am), but there was a lot of elegant chemistry involved in the PUREX process and the handling of its waste materials, and I would be wary of someone who isn't a very good inorganic chemist coming up with "innovative processes to apply to the waste".  Here is an example of a question I used to use on an exam: the PUREX plant at Hanford disposes of large quantities of concentrated nitric acid.  The disposal method results in a brownish cloud issuing from the stack.  write a chemical equation for the chemistry of disposal.


Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.

ruthweiner@aol.com