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 /sup 90/Sr and /sup 137/Cs, the greatest 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 to 4000 for the ion exchange and evaporation steps.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-26
- OSTI ID:
- 5491576
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL-3036
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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LOW-RADIOACTIVITY-LEVEL WASTE TREATMENT. PART I. LABORATORY DEVELOPMENT OF A SCAVENGING-PRECIPITATION ION-EXCHANGE PROCESS FOR DECONTAMINATION OF PROCESS WATER WASTES
Studies on cesium uptake by phenolic resins
Related Subjects
CESIUM 137
LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REMOVAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
ION EXCHANGE
RESINS
REGENERATION
STRONTIUM 90
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
PH VALUE
SODIUM HYDROXIDES
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
ALKALI METAL ISOTOPES
ALKALINE EARTH ISOTOPES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CESIUM ISOTOPES
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROXIDES
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
ISOTOPES
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC POLYMERS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PETROCHEMICALS
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
POLYMERS
PROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOISOTOPES
SODIUM COMPOUNDS
STRONTIUM ISOTOPES
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WASTES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
052001* - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Processing