A critical review on the treatment of radioactive wastewater: Technical efficacy, operational challenges, and the paradigm shift toward valorization

As global nuclear power production grows for low-carbon energy, managing the increasing volume and chemical complexity of radioactive wastewater has become a major technical problem. This review evaluates the performance of mature and emerging technologies, including advanced ion exchange, metal organic frameworks, and thermal plasma gasification. A key result is the industry’s shift from a disposal-only model toward a resource recovery framework. This change is mainly driven by the need to collect medical radioisotopes, such as 225 Ac and 212 Pb, from legacy waste. However, significant technical obstacles remain. Decontaminating high-acidity streams with actinides is difficult, and large-scale tritium separation is not yet possible with current methods, leading to the dilution strategies used at Fukushima. Additionally, the report examines how artificial intelligence-driven robotics improve safety by reducing radiation exposure for workers. By using case studies from the Fukushima crisis, reprocessing plants, and isotope supply chains, this analysis provides technical data and projections for workers and managers in nuclear engineering, environmental science, and policy.