Cesium Concentration in MCU Solvent

During Modular Caustic-Side Solvent Extraction (CSSX) Unit (MCU) operations, Cs-137 concentrations in product streams will vary depending on the location in the process and on the recent process conditions. Calculations of cesium concentrations under a variety of operating conditions reveal the following: (1) Under nominal operations with salt solution feed containing 1.1 Ci Cs-137 per gallon, the maximum Cs-137 concentration in the process will occur in the strip effluent (SE) and equal 15-16.5 Ci/gal. (2) Under these conditions, the majority of the solvent will contain 0.005 to 0.01 Ci/gal, with a limited portion of the solvent in the contactor stages containing ∼4 Ci/gal. (3) When operating conditions yield product near 0.1 Ci Cs-137/gal in the decontaminated salt solution (DSS), the SE cesium concentration will be the same or lower than in nominal operations, but majority of the stripped solvent will increase to ∼2-3 Ci/gal. (4) Deviations in strip and waste stream flow rates cause the largest variations in cesium content: (a) If strip flow rates deviate by -30% of nominal, the SE will contain ∼23 Ci/gal, although the cesium content of the solvent will increase to only 0.03 Ci/gal; (b) If strip flow rate deviates by -77% (i.e., 23% of nominal), the SE will contain 54 Ci/gal and solvent will contain 1.65 Ci/gal. At this point, the product DSS will just reach the limit of 0.1 Ci/gal, causing the DSS gamma monitors to alarm; and (c) Moderate (+10 to +30%) deviations in waste flow rate cause approximately proportional increases in the SE and solvent cesium concentrations. Recovery from a process failure due to poor cesium stripping can achieve any low cesium concentration required. Passing the solvent back through the contactors while recycling DSS product will produce a ∼70% reduction during one pass through the contactors (assuming the stripping D value is no worse than 0.36). If the solvent is returned to the solvent hold tank (containing additional, unstripped solvent), 3.3 tank turnovers will reduce the cesium content by an order of magnitude. Under these conditions, the solvent cesium concentration can be reduced to <0.03 Ci/gal during 8 hours at nominal solvent flow rates (2.8 gpm)