Cesium removal from Hanford tank waste

Conference · Mon Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:10146484

Kurath, D E; Richmond, W G; Jones, E O; Bray, L A; Bunker, B C

Researchers at PNL are developing ion exchange processes to remove cesium from high salt, alkaline tank wastes at the Hanford site. The separated cesium will be concentrated and vitrified for disposal in the High-Level Waste Repository. The low-level waste fraction containing the majority of the waste constituents will be solidified in a grout waste form for disposal in underground concrete vaults. While the treatment and disposal requirements are still being defined, one goal is to remove enough cesium so that the low-level waste will meet the class A limits for Cs-137 (1 Ci/m{sup 3}). An integrated laboratory testing and desip effort is being used to speed the deployment of the ion exchange processes. The three main areas of laboratory investigation are equilibrium behavior, column performance, and material stability in the radioactive and chemical environment encountered during waste processing. Materials being investigated include a phenolic-carboxylic acid based resin, a resorcinol-formaldehyde resin, and the inorganic ion exchangers zeolite and silco-titanates. Concurrent with the laboratory work, a field deployable, modular compact ion-exchange unit is being designed to provide a means for rapid deployment of the technology. This distributed processing concept appears to offer several advantages relative to the traditional centralized fixed canyon facility. These include accelerating the start of tank waste pretreatment, flexibility to incorporate process improvements, flexibility to tailor a process to a particular waste type, and a reduced risk in deploying new processes.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 10146484
• Report Number(s): PNL-SA--21848; CONF-930364--2; ON: DE93011906
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052001
052002
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400105
CESIUM 137
HANFORD RESERVATION
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
ION EXCHANGE
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE
RESINS
SALTS
SEPARATION PROCEDURES
SEPARATION PROCESSES
TANKS
VITRIFICATION
WASTE DISPOSAL AND STORAGE
WASTE PROCESSING