A PHENOLIC RESIN ION EXCHANGE PROCESS FOR DECONTAMINATING LOW-RADIOACTIVITY- LEVEL PROCESS WATER WASTES
A process was developed on a laboratory scale to decontaminate large volumes of low-radioactivity-level process water wastes having a macrochemical composition not very different from tap water but containing more than the maximum permissible concentration of radioisotopes for unrestricted discharge. The water is adjusted to 0.01 M NaOH (pH slightly under 12), clarified to remove the small amount of solids, and passed through a bed of phenolic cation exchange resin. With typical ORNL waste, when the water is made alkaline, more than half the radioactivity is removed by coprecipitation with the calcium and magnesium already present and most of the remaining radioactivity is removed by the resin. About 99.9% of the Sr/sup 9//sup 0/ and Cs/sup 1//sup 3//sup 7/, the greates t health hazards, can be removed from 1500 to 2000 volumes of the alkaline water by passage through one volume of phenolic resin (Duolite CS-100 or C-3) on a 3.5 to 7 day cycle. Phenolic resins are much more selective for cesium at high pH than other resins. The resin can be regenerated with 10 volumes of 1 to 5 M HCl, removing 99.9% of the strontium and cesium. The waste regenerant can be evaporated to one-half resin volume of concentrated radioactive waste to be stored, representing an over-all volume reduction factor of 3000-4000 for the ion exchange and evaporation steps. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., Tenn.
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-26
- NSA Number:
- NSA-15-020474
- OSTI ID:
- 4055636
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL-3036
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-61
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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