Editing Nuclear reprocessing (section)

===== Sodium acetate =====
The sodium uranyl [[acetate]] process was used by the early Soviet nuclear industry to recover plutonium from irradiated fuel.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Foreman |first=Mark R. St J. |title=Reactor accident chemistry an update |journal=Cogent Chemistry |date=2018 |volume=4 |issue=1 |doi=10.1080/23312009.2018.1450944 |doi-access=free}}</ref> It was never used in the West; the idea is to dissolve the fuel in [[nitric acid]], alter the oxidation state of the plutonium, and then add [[acetic acid]] and base. This would convert the uranium and plutonium into a solid acetate salt.

Explosion of the crystallized acetates-nitrates in a non-cooled waste tank caused the [[Kyshtym disaster]] in 1957.