Analytical Sciences

Design of Microchannel Suitable for Packing with Anion Exchange Resins: Uranium Separation from Seawater Containing a Large Amount of Cesium

Kazuki OUCHI,* Takehiko TSUKAHARA,** Aileen BRANDT,** Yoshiki MUTO,** Nozomi NABATAME,*** and Yoshihiro KITATSUJI*

*Nuclear Science and Engineering Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 2-4 Shirakata, Tokai-mura, Naka, Ibaraki 319-1195, Japan
**Laboratory for Advanced Nuclear Energy, Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1-N1-6 O-okayama, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan
***Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Ibaraki University, 2-1-1 Bunkyo, Mito, Ibaraki 310-8512, Japan

We present a resin-packed microchannel that can reduce the radiation exposure risk and secondary radioactive wastes during uranium (U) separation by downscaling the separation using a microchip. Two types of microchips were designed to densely pack the microchannels with resins. The microchannels had almost the same cross-sectional area, but different outer circumferences. A satisfactory separation performance could be obtained by arranging more than ca. 10 resins along the depth and width of the microchannels. A resin-packed microchannel is an effective separation technique for determining the U concentration via inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry owing to its ability to avoid the contamination of equipment by cesium, and to reduce the matrix effect. The size of the separation site was scaled down to <1/5000 compared to commonly used counterparts. The radiation exposure risk and secondary radioactive wastes can be reduced by 10- and 800-fold, respectively, using a resin-packed microchannel.

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