Ion exchange technology in the remediation of uranium contaminated groundwater at Fernald

Conference · Fri Sep 29 00:00:00 EDT 2000

OSTI ID:770689

Sutton, Chris; Glassmeyer, Cathy; Bozich, Steve

Using pump and treat methodology, uranium contaminated groundwater is being removed from the Great Miami Aquifer at the Fernald Environmental Management Project (FEMP) per the FEMP Record of Decision (ROD) that defines groundwater cleanup. Standard extraction wells pump about 3900 gallons-per-minute (gpm) from the aquifer through five ion exchange treatment systems. The largest treatment system k the Advanced Wastewater Treatment (AWWT) Expansion System with a capacity of 1800 gpm, which consists of three trains of two vessels. The trains operate in parallel treating 600 gpm each, The two vessels in each train operate in series, one in lead and one in lag. Treated groundwater is either reinfected back into the aquifer to speed up the aquifer cleanup processor discharged to the Great Miami River. The uranium regulatory ROD limit for discharge to the river is 20 parts per billion (ppb), and the FEMP uranium administrative action level for reinfection is 10 ppb. Spent (i.e., a resin that no longer adsorbs uranium) ion exchange resins must either be replaced or regenerated. The regeneration of spent ion exchange resins is considerably more cost effective than their replacement. Therefore, a project was undertaken to learn how best to regenerate the resins in the groundwater vessels. At the outset of this project, considerable uncertainty existed as to whether a spent resin could be regenerated successfully enough so that it performed as well as new resin relative to achieving very low uranium concentrations in the effluent. A second major uncertain y was whether the operational lifetime of a regenerated resin would be similar to that of a new resin with respect to uranium loading capacity and effluent concentration behavior. The project was successful in that a method for regenerating resins has been developed that is operationally efficient, that results in regenerated resins yielding uranium concentrations much lower than regulatory limits, and that results in regenerated resins with operational lifetimes comparable to new resins.

• Research Organization: Fernald Environmental Management Project, Cincinnati, OH (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC24-92OR21972
• OSTI ID: 770689
• Report Number(s): FEMP-2577; TRN: US0108364
• Resource Relation: Conference: Spectrum 2000 Conference, Chattanooga, TN (US), 09/24/2000--09/29/2000; Other Information: PBD: 29 Sep 2000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
AQUIFERS
ION EXCHANGE
ION EXCHANGE MATERIALS
REGENERATION
RESINS
URANIUM
FEED MATERIALS PRODUCTION CENTER
OHIO
REMEDIAL ACTION
GROUND WATER
PUMPING
WATER TREATMENT
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
GROUNDWATER
CONTAMINATION
FERNALD
REMEDIATION