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Title: DEVELOPMENT OF PROTOTYPE TITANATE ION EXCHANGE LOADED MEMBRANES FOR STRONTIUM, CESIUM AND ACTINIDE DECONTAMINATION FROM AQUEOUS MEDIA

Journal Article · · Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
OSTI ID:933161

We have successfully incorporated high surface area particles of titanate ion exchange materials (monosodium titanate and crystalline silicotitanate) with acceptable particle size distribution into porous and inert support membrane fibrils consisting of polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon{reg_sign}), polyethylene and cellulose materials. The resulting membrane sheets, under laboratory conditions, were used to evaluate the removal of surrogate radioactive materials for cesium-137 and strontium-90 from high caustic nuclear waste simulants. These membrane supports met the nominal requirement for nonchemical interaction with the embedded ion exchange materials and were porous enough to allow sufficient liquid flow. Some of this 47-mm size stamped out prototype titanium impregnated ion exchange membrane discs was found to remove more than 96% of dissolved cesium-133 and strontium-88 from a caustic nuclear waste salt simulants. Since in traditional ion exchange based column technology monosodium titanate (MST) is known to have great affinity for the sorbing of other actinides like plutonium, neptunium and even uranium, we expect that the MST-based membranes developed here, although not directly evaluated for uptake of these three actinides because of costs associated with working with actinides which do not have 'true' experimental surrogates, would also show significant affinity for these actinides in aqueous media. It was also observed that crystalline silicotitanate impregnated polytetrafluoroethylene or polyethylene membranes became less selective and sorbed both cesium and strontium from the caustic aqueous salt simulants.

Research Organization:
Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC09-96SR18500
OSTI ID:
933161
Report Number(s):
WSRC-MS-2008-00097; JRNCDM; TRN: US0803752
Journal Information:
Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, Journal Name: Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry; ISSN 0236-5731
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English