Technetium Removal from Hanford and Savannah River Site Actual Tank Waste Supernates with Superlig^® 639 Resin

Abstract

SuperLig 639 elutable, organic resin was selected for technetium (as pertechnetate ion) removal from Hanford Site radioactive waste samples as part of the River Protection Project—Waste Treatment Plant (RPP-WTP) design. In support of the RPP-WTP flow sheet development, column tests have been performed at the Savannah River Technology Center with SuperLig 639 resin using actual Hanford Site tank waste samples. The resin was shown to be highly effective at pertechnetate removal from these caustic, high-sodium, aqueous waste samples. Pertechnetate ion was subsequently eluted from the columns with water. An additional column test conducted on a Savannah River Site waste sample revealed exceptional performance, presumably due to the fact that lower concentrations of competing anions (primarily nitrate) were present in the sample.

Acknowledgments

This work was conducted at the Savannah River Technology Center in Aiken, SC, which is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Westinghouse Savannah River Company under contract DE-AC09-96SR18500. The Hanford River Protection Project Office supported this work. We are very grateful to Karen N. Palmer, Yvonne J. Simpkins, Francis Wakefield, Myra Bussey, and Kathy Klapper for their assistance in the experimental work. We also thank Major C. Thompson for his contributions toward the experimental design and review of this work.