Development of removal methods of radioactive ruthenium by using the column packed with cell materials

Ruthenium is an element of various valencies and present in many chemical species of nitro-nitrosyl complexes in nitric acid or in solutions containing nitrates. Since radioactive ruthenium (103Ru, 106Ru) of those chamical species is contained in the wastes occurred on the fuel reprocessing by Purex method and others, it is one of the nuclides which are most difficult to be removed by the conventional methods of the radioactive waste treatments. It was found that this nuclide was effectively removed by passing the waste solution through a column packed with the mixture of powder of anode and cathode materials and depolarizers used in the electric cells. The typical mixtures were zinc-charcoal, zinc.palladium-charcoal, zinc-manganese dioxide.charcoal and zinc-carbon fluoride.charcoal. These column methods showed a surpassing removel efficiency for 106Ru complexes and fisson products. The decontamination factors of radioactive ruthenium were 104 for all kinds of ruthenium complexes and 102 for the species not easily removed by the conventional methods. It was also found that the concentrations of 239Pu, U, 144ce, 155Eu, and 125Sb in the waste could be decreased to that below the limits of detection by the cell material columns. Because 106Ru of chemical species which was difficult to be removed by conventional methods could be efficiently separated from the waste solutions, it was concluded that the columns packed with cell materials are valuable tools in the radioactive waste treatments. (author)