Hot demonstration of proposed commercial cesium removal technology: Progress report

Cesium, strontium, and technetium radionuclides constitute a small fraction of the primarily sodium and potassium salts present in supernatants that are being stored in tanks at Hanford, Oak Ridge, Savannah River, and Idaho and must be remediated. Nuclide removal technologies supplied by the US Department of Energy Office of Science and Technology`s Efficient Separations and Processing (ESP) Cross-Cutting Program have been previously proposed and tested in small batch and column tests using both simulated and actual supernatants. These technologies must now be tested and the most appropriate ones selected using a flow system of a scale suitable to obtain engineering data that can be applied to the design of pilot-scale equipment. This report describes the operation of the experimental test unit that is located in Building 4501 (ORNL) and the results using the sorbent materials that were tested