PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15747713
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-01
Publication Date: 2018-08
Patent Classification: ["423", "009000"]

Abstract:
A method for the treatment of an aqueous solution resulting from the dissolution of a spent nuclear fuel in nitric acid, allowing the uranium and plutonium contained in the solution to be extracted, separated and decontaminated in a single cycle, without requiring any operation involving a reductive stripping of plutonium. Applications for the method include the processing of uranium-based and/or plutonium-based spent nuclear fuels.

Claim (Index 1):
A method for processing in one cycle an aqueous solution resulting from a dissolution of a spent nuclear fuel in nitric acid, the aqueous solution comprising uranium, plutonium, americium, curium and fission products including technetium, the cycle comprising:\n a) a co-extraction of uranium and plutonium from the aqueous solution, the co-extraction comprising at least one contacting, in an extractor, of the aqueous solution with aft first organic solution comprising from 1 mol/L to 2 mol/L of N,N-di(2-ethylhexyl)-3,3-dimethylbutanamide or a mixture of N,N-di(2-ethylhexyl)-isobutanamide and N,N-di(2-ethylhexyl)-n-butanamide as extractant, in solution in an organic diluent, followed by a separation of the aqueous and organic solutions; b) a decontamination of the organic solution resulting from a) with respect to americium, curium and fission products, the decontamination comprising at least one contacting, in an extractor, of the organic solution resulting from a) with an aqueous solution comprising from 0.5 mol/L to 6 mol/L of nitric acid, followed by a separation of the organic and aqueous solutions; c) a partitioning of the uranium and plutonium contained in the organic solution resulting from b) into an aqueous solution and an organic solution, the aqueous solution comprising either plutonium without uranium, or a mixture of plutonium and uranium, and the organic solution comprising uranium without plutonium, the partitioning comprising: c 1 ) a stripping of plutonium, in oxidation state +IV, and of a fraction of uranium from the organic solution resulting from b), the stripping comprising at least one contacting, in an extractor, of the organic solution resulting from b) with an aqueous solution comprising from 0.1 mol/L to 0.5 mol/L of nitric acid, followed by a separation of the organic and aqueous solutions; c 2 ) an extraction of all or part of the uranium fraction contained in the aqueous solution resulting from c 1 ), the extraction comprising at least one contacting, in an extractor, of the aqueous solution resulting from c 1 ) with a second organic solution identical to the first organic solution, followed by a separation of the aqueous and second organic solutions; d) a decontamination of the organic solution resulting from c 1 ) with respect to technetium, the decontamination comprising: d 1 ) a stripping of technetium, in oxidation state +IV, from the organic solution resulting from c 1 ), the stripping comprising at least one contacting, in an extractor, of the organic solution resulting from c 1 ) with an aqueous solution comprising from 0.1 mol/L to 3 mol/L of nitric acid and at least one reducing agent capable of reducing technetium from oxidation state +VII to oxidation state +IV, or a complexing agent capable of stabilising technetium in aqueous phase, followed by a separation of the organic and aqueous solutions; d 2 ) an extraction of the uranium fraction contained in the aqueous solution resulting from d 1 ), the extraction comprising at least one contacting, in an extractor, of the aqueous solution resulting from d 1 ) with a third organic solution identical to the first organic solution, followed by a separation of the aqueous and third organic solutions; e) a stripping of uranium from the organic solution resulting from d 1 ), the stripping comprising at least one contacting, in an extractor, of the organic solution resulting from d 1 ) with an aqueous solution comprising no more than 0.05 mol/L of nitric acid, followed by a separation of the organic and aqueous solutions; and f) a regeneration of the organic phase resulting step e); whereby a first and second aqueous solution are obtained, decontaminated with respect to americium, curium and fission products including technetium, the first aqueous solution comprising plutonium without uranium or a mixture of plutonium and uranium, and the second aqueous solution comprising uranium without plutonium.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 35.0
- Percentile: 86.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.46809
- Patent Class: 423.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15748030', '15104154', '13380456', '11753182', '13699748']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7797091046878802
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.6144968168959962
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7631878759086919
- Mean Citation Score: 412.65064200000006
- Max Citation Score: 546.6273
- Similarity Product: 505.0346687202752

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 0
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test