PROGRESS IN TREATMENT OF A RADIOACTIVE CONDENSATE WASTE

A waste stream decontamination process based on ion exchange was selected for development. The process is centered on ion-exchange technology developed during recent years in the Hanford Laboratories and other atomic energy research centers. Early attempts at small engineering scale application of ion- exchange technology resulted in less than satisfactory results when compared to laboratory data. The difficulties were traced to nonradioactive impurities in the wastes. Steam stripping and filtering successfully removed these impurities, and excellent decontamination of all significant isotopes except ruthenium was achieved by ion exchange. Satisfactory ruthenium decontamination was demonstrated on waste volumes up to about 1000 column volumes, and the capacity for other isotopes ranged from 10,000 to 20,000 column volumes. Improvement in ruthenium decontamination is needed to simplify operations and to improve economics. Although a largescale integrated process is yet to be demonstrated, a cost estimate of an ion-exchange process was made. The estimate of 50/1000 gal was based on a 2 ton/day fuels reprocessing plant which produces about 30,000 gal/day of condensate requiring treatment. The estimate was based on a process for alkaline condensate and it was assumed a process for acid condensate would cost about the same. This estimate is about /1000 gal less than the estimated cost for reevaporation. (auth