Development and testing of ion exchangers for treatment of liquid wastes at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Abstract

This report addresses three areas of waste treatment: (1) treatment of newly generated low-level liquid waste and Melton Valley Storage Tank (MVST) supernate using inorganic ion exchangers; (2) treatment of processing streams at the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center (REDC); and (3) removal of radionuclides from organic solutions. Distribution of various radionuclides between simulated waste solutions and several sorbents was determined in batch tests. Inorganic ion exchangers were prepared in the form of microspheres by an intemal gelation process. Microspheres of hydrous titania, hydrous zirconia, hydrous titania containing embedded sodium cobalt hexacyanoferrate, and the corresponding phosphate forms of these materials were prepared. Several zeolites (PDZ-140, PDZ-300, EE-96, CBV-10A) and inorganic ion exchangers (hydrous titania, hydrous zirconia, polyantimanic acid, sodium cobalt hexacyanoferrate) were tested for the removal of cesium and strontium from the acidic simulated Cleanex raffinate generated at REDC. A resorcinol-based ion-exchange resin and three types of sodium titanate were tested for removal of cesium and strontium from the REDC caustic dissolver solution. Hydrous titania, hydrous zirconia, and their corresponding phosphates were tested for the removal of Eu{sup 3+} from various solutions of di-2-ethylbexyl phosphoric acid (HDEHP) in toluene or dodecane.