Technetium control

The behavior of Tc in the COEXTM process is basically the same as in PUREX flowsheet presented in Fig. 6.2. More than 95% of Tc from the dissolution solution is recovered in raffinate of the complementary extrac­tion, so in an effluent presenting a relative low activity (the bulk of the other fission products is eliminated during the first extraction-scrubbing steps). The other 5% of Tc is recovered in the raffinate of the second U/Pu puri­fication cycle (“mini-cycle”).