Stabilization of Metal-Loaded Ion-Exchange Resin with a Porous Silica Supporter Through Thermal Treatment

A new ion exchanger with porous silica as a supporting material and diphosphonic acid as a functional chelating group has been developed at ANL for the effective removal of transition metals and actinide ions from very acidic radioactive liquid wastes. The applicability of this resin for the treatment of low- and/or intermediate-level aqueous waste from nuclear power plants (NPP) has not been reported in scientific literature, but is under study now in Korea. The major radioisotopes in NPP radioactive liquid waste are Cs and Co in neutral pH ranges. This study on the thermal stabilization of metal-loaded waste resin has been carried out in parallel with the sorption experiment. Thermal treatment of metal (Co, Cs or U) loaded resin was accomplished to see the possibility of enhancing the safety and stability of the final product during transportation and disposal. In this paper, characteristics of the metal-loaded resins before and after heat treatment at three different thermal conditions were investigated and compared with each other to see the effectiveness of the thermal treatment method