Removal of cesium from alkaline waste solution: Part II – Column ion exchange study

Abstract

SuperLig / Resin / Cesium / Column sorption / Breakthrough curve / ElutionSummary. Column ion exchange tests have been used to demonstrate the ability of SuperLig ® 644 resin to remove 137 Cs from highly alkaline radioactive waste. The column test resulted in 137 Cs removal and overall decontamination factor of 99.6% (lead column) and 517 000 (lag column) respectively. The concentration of 137 Cs in the lag column effluent (0.000423 µCi 137 Cs/mL) was two orders of magnitude below the low-activity waste vitrification limit of 0.087 µCi 137 Cs/mL. The bed volume (BV = 175) at the onset of breakthrough exceeded the requirement of 100 BV at 50% breakthrough. Cesium elution with 0.5 M HNO 3 was adequate with a peak BV of 3.5. C/C 0 = 0.01 occurred at 10 BV of eluant, which is less than the target of 15 BV. Further, 99.99% of sorbed cesium was eluted from the resin. The residual 137 Cs on the regenerated resin after the column operation was 23 µCi/g dry Na + form resin.

Removal of cesium from alkaline waste solution: Part I – Batch ion exchange study

“…All the batch sorption runs were conducted in duplicate except the control runs. Single controls were used in order to have adequate AN-104 waste solution for the column run due to limited availability [12].…”

“…The steps below essentially reduced the 137 Cs on the resin to permit its removal from the radioactive cell (hot cell) for analysis. Note that the steps are those used in the SuperLig ® 644 resin column ion exchange operation [2,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

“…a: Calculated using Eq. (5); b: Based on resin bed volume during column run cesium loading step [12]. Table 3 gives the major constituents of the AN-104 waste solution.…”

“…The data presented here deal with the batch ion exchange aspect of the AN-104 waste study. The column aspect of the study is presented in the next article as part II [12].…”

Reactivity of Resorcinol Formaldehyde Resin with Nitric Acid

“…The liquid portion of the waste (supernate) is caustic and contains radioactive cesium ions (as well as other radionuclides) which must be removed prior to ultimate disposal in a glass waste form. Resorcinol formaldehyde resin is one of two ion exchange materials being considered for cesium removal in the WTP using a column processing configuration [2].…”