A GANEX (Group ActiNide EXtraction) separation system for transmutation has been developed. In this separation process the actinides should be extracted as a group from the lanthanides and the fission and corrosion/activation products. This can be achieved by combining BTBP (bis-triazine-bipyridine) with TBP (tri-butyl phosphate) in cyclohexanone. From 4M nitric acid this organic system extracts the actinides (log(D_Am) = 2.19, log(D_Pu) = 2.31, log(D_U) = 1.03, log(D_Np) = 0.53) and also separates them from the lanthanides (log(D_La) = −2.0, log(D_Ce) = −1.72, log(D_Nd) = −1.05, log(D_Sm) = −0.18, log(D_Eu) = −0.02). One problem encountered is that some of the fission and corrosion products are also extracted. The new system however still looks feasible.

The waste from nuclear power plants worldwide has to be isolated from man and his environment for about 100,000 years to equal the levels of natural uranium. If, however, the long-lived actinides could be separated from the spent fuel and transmuted, then the isolation time could be shortened to about 1,000 years. This does, however, require the selective separation of the actinides from the rest of the waste. Several processes exist for such a separation, of which one is the Group ActiNide Extraction (GANEX) process. A novel GANEX process has been developed at the Chalmers University of Technology utilizing the properties of already well known extractants by combining BTBP and TBP into one solvent. The stability provided by this GANEX solvent towards ageing, hydrolysis, and radiolysis has been investigated. The results show that the actinide distribution ratios are maintained after a long duration of contact with strong nitric acid. The solvent has also been found to be stable towards radiolysis up to 200 kGy in contact with 4 M nitric acid.

The structure around the absorbing atom in the dicomplexes of CyMe₄-BTBP of americium(iii) and europium(III) have been studied in solvent used in solvent extraction.

To facilitate multicentre clinical studies on targeted alpha therapy, it is necessary to develop an automated, on-site procedure for conjugating rare, short-lived, alpha-emitting radionuclides to biomolecules. Astatine-211 is one of the few alpha-emitting nuclides with appropriate chemical and physical properties for use in targeted therapies for cancer. Due to the very short range of the emitted α-particles, this therapy is particularly suited to treating occult, disseminated cancers. Astatine is not intrinsically tumour-specific; therefore, it requires an appropriate tumour-specific targeting vector, which can guide the radiation to the cancer cells. Consequently, an appropriate method is required for coupling the nuclide to the vector. To increase the availability of astatine-211 radiopharmaceuticals for targeted alpha therapy, their production should be automated. Here, we present a method that combines dry distillation of astatine-211 and a synthesis module for producing radiopharmaceuticals into a process platform. This platform will standardize production of astatinated radiopharmaceuticals and hence, it will facilitate large clinical studies focused on this promising, but chemically challenging, alpha-emitting radionuclide. In this work, we describe the process platform and we demonstrate the production of both astaine-211, for preclinical use and astatine-211 labelled antibodies.

Research focus within separation for transmutation in Europe today lies in the development of a solvent extraction separation process called GANEX (Group ActiNide EXtraction). In this type of process the actinides should be extracted as a group and separated from the lanthanides and the other fission and corrosion/activation products. One GANEX process has been developed combining the two extractants bis-triazine-bi-pyridine (BTBP) and tri-butyl phosphate (TBP) in cyclohexanone. In previous work the TBP has been successfully substituted with N,N-di-2-ethylhexyl-butyramide (DEHBA). In this paper, this exchange has been further studied investigating also fission product extraction as well as hydrolytic and radiolytic stability and acid extraction.