Study on the Behaviour of Inorganic Ion Exchangers in the Treatment of Medium Active Effluents. Part II - Effect of gamma Irradiation on Absorber Performance

摘要

This report summarises some of the results from an ongoing experimental programme of work for the Department of the Environment on the potential use of inorganic ion exchangers for the treatment of medium active waste streams. The effect of irradiation up to a total dose of 10 M Gy on the absorption of fission products and actinides over a range of experimental conditions by selected ion exchangers is described. The ion exchangers tested were polyantimonic acid, hydrous titanium oxide, manganese dioxide, potassium copper hexacyanoferrate II, titanium phosphate and zirconium phosphate. Manganese dioxide and potassium copper hexacyanoferrate II were unaffected by irradiation. Polyantimonic acid showed a decreasing performance with increasing total dose. Zirconium phosphate, titanium phosphate and oxide showed a decreasing performance up to a total dose of 2.19 M Gy with an apparent recovery in performance on increasing the total dose to 10 M Gy. The effect of conditioning time on some of the irradiated absorbers could have influenced the uptake data above 1.25 M Gy. (ERA citation 13:014203)