FeCl3 bearing etching solution is mainly used for etching of metals used in shadow masks, PCBs and so on. Due course of Invar alloy etching process the FeCl3 bearing etching solution get contaminated with Ni2+ which affect adversely the etching efficiency. Hence, FeCl3 bearing etching solution discarded after several cycle of operation causes an environmental and economic problem. To address both the issues the etching solution was purified through solvent extraction and remained Ni2+ recovered by wet chemical reduction using hydrazine. For optimum Fe3+ extraction efficiency, various extraction parameter were optimized and size and morphology of the recovered pure Ni powder was analyzed. The reported process is a simple process to purify and recover Ni from industry etching solution.

This study was conducted to treat radioactive acidic wastewater, which contained radioactive ⁶⁰Co and ¹⁵²Eu. The wastewater can be generated during a decommissioning project to reduce the volume of radioactive concrete waste from nuclear facilities. With a variety of methods for separating the radioactive nuclides available, we evaluated the separation applicability of the solvent extraction method. From our results, Co and Eu could be easily extracted from the Ca rich wastewater using Cyanex301 (Co extraction (%) 99.8, Eu extraction (%) 99.6) without Ca extraction. On the other hand, Eu could be selectively separated by Cyanex272 (Eu extraction (%) 99.1) without Co and Ca extraction at pH 2~3. Therefore, the extraction method can be tailored according to the target radionuclides present in the wastewater and be selectively applied to the overall treatment process. By extracting radioactive Co and Eu from acidic wastewater to below the discharge criteria, treated wastewater could be regarded as non-radioactive industrial waste, to be economically and easily handled. Moreover, it may be possible to reuse separated Co and Eu for research and industrial applications by realizing waste valorization.