Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Ion exchange in a zeolite-molten chloride system

Conference ·
OSTI ID:510315
;  [1]
  1. Argonne National Lab., IL (United States). Chemical Technology Div.
Electrometallurgical treatment of spent nuclear fuel results in a secondary waste stream of radioactive fission products dissolved in chloride salt. Disposal plans include a waste form that can incorporate chloride forms featuring one or more zeolites consolidated with sintered glass. A candidate method for incorporating fission products in the zeolites is passing the contaminated salt over a zeolite column for ion exchange. To date, the molten chloride ion-exchange properties of four zeolites have been investigated for this process: zeolite A, IE95{reg_sign}, clinoptilolite, and mordenite. Of these, zeolite A has been the most promising. Treating zeolite 4A, the sodium form of zeolite A , with the solvent salt for the waste stream-lithium-potassium chloride of eutectic melting composition, is expected to provide a material with favorable ion-exchange properties for the treatment of the waste salt. The authors constructed a pilot-plant system for the ion-exchange column. Initial results indicate that there is a direct relationship between the two operating variable of interest, temperature, and initial sodium concentration. Also, the mass ratio has been about 3--5 to bring the sodium concentration of the effluent below 1 mol%.
Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
W-31109-ENG-38
OSTI ID:
510315
Report Number(s):
ANL/CMT/CP--91561; CONF-970568--71; ON: DE97006982
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English