Immobilization of Fission Iodine by Reaction with a Fullerene Containing Carbon Compound and Insoluble Natural Organic Matrix: Quarterly Report August-September 2004

During first year of the project we were able to demonstrate iodine sorption by a sphagnum peat and Ca(OH)2 mixture. We decided to explore varying the ratio of Ca(OH)2 to sphagnum on the retention of iodine in both the iodine generator experiments and the fuel rod simulator experiments. We also constructed a device for simulating the dissolution of fuel rods. Early experiments were impacted by sorption of iodine onto various components of the sorption train. We have eliminated or minimized iodine sorption by the system components. We retested both FCC and the sphagnum using this device. In these experiments a known quantity of iodine (3 – 6 mg) is placed into the system and nitric acid is added. The system is sparged with nitrogen through trap materials and through bisulfite filled impingers. These experiments were conducted with very small quantities of sorbent (0.02 g) so that breakthrough could be observed in a reasonable amount of time. With larger amounts of material (~0.5 g) breakthrough was not observed under these conditions. We have conducted additional fuel rod simulation experiments on FCC and NOM to examine the effect of NOx