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Supernatant treatment of the final decontamination method for the supernatant treatment system: Progress report for the period March 1982-September 1987

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6309190

As part of the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP), the PUREX supernatant sored in tank 8D-2 will be partially decontaminated before encapsulation in the final glass form. This report discusses selection of a method for removing Cs-137, the major radioactive ion in the supernatant. The methods considered were electrodialysis; hyperfiltration; precipitation with ferrocyanide, NATPB, and PTA; organic ion exchange using CS-100 and a biologically derived method; chelation using DeVoe/Holbein compositions; and inorganic ion exchange with Durasil, natural zeolites, IE-95 and IE-96 medias. After extensive evaluation of experimental data with process constraints taken into account, the inorganic ion exchange media IE-96 (Linde Ionsiv IE-96 synthetic zeolite) was chosen for cesium recovery. IE-96 was chosen because of high sorption rate, high decontamination factor, ion exchange capacity, and compatibility with the glass formers for borosilicate glass in direct melter feed. This report describes the principal design criteria and the process design developed for use in processing the high-level waste supernatant. 4 refs., 10 tabs.

Research Organization:
West Valley Nuclear Services Co., Inc., West Valley, NY (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC07-81NE44139
OSTI ID:
6309190
Report Number(s):
DOE/NE/44139-35; ON: DE87014109
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English