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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Evaluation of electrochemical ion exchange for cesium elution

Conference ·
OSTI ID:183514
; ;  [1]
  1. Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs., Richland, WA (United States); and others
Hanford`s 177 underground waste storage tanks contain a mixture of radioactive sludge, salt cake, and alkaline supernatant. The mission of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is to provide treatment, storage and disposal of the waste in a safe, cost effective, and environmentally sound manner. Battelle Memorial Institute, which operates the Pacific Northwest Laboratories (PNL) for DOE is responsible for providing research and technical support of DOE goals and objectives. One of the priorities of the DOE is the removal of the radioactive constituents (mainly {sup 137}Cs) so that the resulting solution can be disposed as low-level waste. Although the pretreatment and disposal requirements are still being defined, the first steps in the pretreatment scheme includes dissolution of the salt cake, sludge wash, and solid-liquid separation. The bulk of the soluble radionuclides (such as {sup 137}Cs) are expected to remain in the supernate wash streams. An ion-exchange process is being designed to separate cesium from alkaline solutions now in Hanford underground storage tanks.
OSTI ID:
183514
Report Number(s):
CONF-941175--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English