THE REMOVAL OF STRONTIUM AND CESIUM FROM SIMULATED HANFORD GROUNDWATER USING INORGANIC-ION EXCHANGE MATERIALS

A number of inorganic ion exchange materials that are commercially ava ilable or under development were evaluated for the removal of strontiu m and cesium from a simulated groundwater found in the Hanford waste s torage area using a groundwater simulant spiked with either Sr-89 or C s-137. The most promising materials for strontium were found to be a s odium titanosilicate from Texas A&M University closely followed by two titanium silicate pharmacosiderites obtained from AlliedSignal. The m ost promising materials for the selective removal of cesium from the s imulant was again the sodium titanosilicate followed by an alumina-pil lared montmorillonite clay obtained from Laporte Industries Ltd. The i on exchange kinetics were shown to be very rapid far both the titanosi licate and the pharmacosiderite, whilst the alumina-pillared montmoril lonite had slower kinetics more comparable to those of the zeolite AW5 00.