This review provides a comprehensive overview of published hydrometallurgicalchemical processes capable of separating americium from curium and the lanthanides.A search for highly-selective and robust americium separation methods is motivated bythe fact that americium isotopes contribute significantly to the long-term heat load andresidual radiotoxicity of high level waste originating from the PUREX process,nowadays still the key reprocessing technology to recycle uranium and plutonium fromspent nuclear fuel. The separation (partitioning) and subsequent nuclear transmutation(or burning) of americium would allow a substantial cost saving in the construction ofan underground final repository and provide safety benefits – highly relevant for theexploitation of such a facility over extended periods of time. Besides the discussion ofbasic properties of the various separation methods, an evaluation of their compatibilitywith upstream and downstream processes as well as the treatment of secondary wastestreams is provided.
