The nymphea concept: a new way for using ion exchange in the decontamination of radioactive liquid wastes with low salt content

SGN has undertaken the development of a new equipment ''NYMPHEA'', specially fitted for the purification of the pool water in spent fuel storage facilities. Based on ion-exchange process, these immersed units are working with high flow rate and a small thickness of the resins bed. Cogema has selected these ionic ''NYMPHEA'' for installation in the new storage basins already built or in construction in the new french reprocessing plant UP3 in La Hague (France). Together with the necessary and complementary hot tests in CEA laboratories (CADARACHE), a basic research has been started in cooperation with the Chemical Engineering Science Laboratory (LSGC Nancy) and the results already achieved are presented in this paper. Since two years, the ''NYMPHEA'' are into operation at La Hague (pool C), fulfilling all the required performances. This new and promising concept could, in the future, be extended to other applications, for the treatment of low salt content solutions, in the nuclear waste processing field, as well as for various chemical separations