Recent developments in the use of chemical absorbing membranes for radionuclide separations

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will rely extensively on efficient chemical separations technologies to treat radionuclide containing waste left behind from nuclear weapons production. The waste varies in composition over extreme ranges of pH from acidic to basic. Bulk liquid and solid extraction processes can be used to remove the various radionuclides prior to vitrification or grouting, but suffer from severe limitations. A new approach uses technology which has been developed to incorporate almost any sorbent particle into membranes and then fabricate these into versatile, highly efficient chemical absorbing cartridges