Collection of fission and activation product elements from fresh and ocean waters: A comparison of traditional and novel sorbents

Monitoring natural waters for the inadvertent release of radioactive fission products produced as a result of nuclear power generation downstream from these facilities is essential for maintaining water quality. To this end, we evaluated sorbents for simultaneous in-situ large volume extraction of radionuclides with both soft (e.g., Ag) and hard metal (e.g., Co, Zr, Nb, Ba, and Cs) or anionic (e.g., Ru, Te, Sb) character. In this study, we evaluated a number of conventional and novel nanoporous sorbents in both fresh and salt waters. In most cases, the nanoporous sorbents demonstrated enhanced retention of analytes. Salinity had significant effects upon sorbent performance and was most significant for hard cations, specifically Cs and Ba. The presence of natural organic matter had little effect on the ability of chemisorbents to extract target elements.