Cesium Removal from Hanford Tank Waste Solution Using Resorcinol‐Formaldehyde Resin

Experiments with Hanford actual waste sample from Tank 241‐AW‐101 and resorcinol‐formaldehyde resin demonstrated that up to 208 BV of cesium (137Cs) can be removed in a single‐pass through an ion exchange column before a 50% breakthrough occurs. This loading performance for the resorcinol‐formaldehyde resin was better than that previously obtained for the baseline resin (SuperLig® 644) under the same experimental conditions. The elution of the resorcinol‐formaldehyde resin with 0.5 M HNO3 was effective requiring only 16.5 BV to elute 99% of the cesium (i.e. C/Co value <0.01) loaded on the column. The peak concentration for 137Cs occurred between 4 and 6 BV with concentration approximately 100 times that of the feed. The metal ions found in the eluate solution above their detection limits were Al, B, Ca, Cs, Na, and Si. Nitrate was the only anion detected and 238Pu, 239/240Pu, and U were slightly enriched in the eluate solution. Large sample dilutions prevented the detection of other species.