ABSTRACT
With the availability of commercial membranes, liquid membrane technology has gained great attention in the last few decades due to their higher effectiveness at trace level metal concentrations. Due to this fact, membrane based techniques outperform conventional technologies. Therefore, extensive work at the back end of fuel cycle has been carried out using liquid membranes viz. the partitioning of actinide from HLLW, the decontamination of various secondary alpha bearing liquid waste streams generated during radioactive waste treatment, and the recovery of useful fission products. The present chapter describes a brief overview of the work carried out at the back end of nuclear fuel cycle employing different liquid membrane techniques giving a special focus to hollow fiber based membrane applications. The main areas covered are recovery of useful radionuclide for societal applications and treatment of various waste streams using liquid membranes. The chapter covers introduction to various liquid membrane techniques and includes a detailed description of radionuclide transport across liquid membranes under varied experimental conditions. Under optimum transport conditions they are deployed for recovery of useful radionuclides such as 90Sr, carrier-free 90Y, and 137Cs from HLLW. The chapter also describes the challenges faced and future research areas for growth of liquid membrane technology at the back end of nuclear fuel cycle.
