Demonstration of various ion exchange sorbents for the removal of cesium and strontium from tan groundwater

Groundwater remediation efforts are currently ongoing at the Test Area North (TAN) located at the Idaho Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). These efforts are primarily directed towards the Technical Support Facility-05 (TSF-05) for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOC''s). The Groundwater Treatment Facility (GWTF), positioned near the TSF-05 injection well at TAN, was installed in 1994 to pump and treat the injection well groundwater. The GWTF was designed to be operated continuously at 50 gpm. Presently the GWTF operates in batch mode attributed to 137''Cs found at higher concentrations than expected. This presence of 137Cs, along with the higher than expected concentration of suspended solids revealed a need for further testing and evaluation of the GWTF process. Two independent experiments were conducted at the GWTF with actual groundwater pumped from TSF-25 and TSF-05 injection wells. One experiment used the 3M Company''s web technology to remove Cs from the actual groundwater, while the second experiment contained a duplicate set of ion exchange columns in series. Each set having two columns, one to remove Cs, the other to remove Sr from the actual groundwater. A total of 5 Cs or Sr specific sorbents were tested in the column setups. A total of eight batches of water were processed through the GWTF with the experimental setups in place, six from TSF-25 and two from TSF-05. Downtime occasionally occurred when high differential pressures prompted the high pressure shutoff switches to shut down the 3M experiment feed pump. A pre-filter change out was initiated when this occurred. Also, experimental setups were shut down for GWTF backwash and discharge operations