Chemical and radiation stability of SuperLig{reg_sign}644, resorcinol-formaldehyde, and CS-100 cesium ion exchange materials

At the request of the Initial Pretreatment Module Project within Westinghouse Hanford Company, Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) conducted this study for the Efficient Separations and Processing Crosscutting Program (ESP) under the task ``Develop and Test Sorbents.`` The purpose of the study was to assess and compare the chemical and radiolytic stability of several cesium-selective ion exchange materials in simulated alkaline Hanford tank waste matrices. Pretreatment of nuclear process wastes to remove of cesium and other radionuclides by ion exchange was proposed previously as one method of minimizing the amount of high-level radioactive waste at Hanford. In this study, PNL evaluated three cesium-selective materials SuperLig{reg_sign}644, resorcinol-formaldehyde (R-F), and CS-100 for chemical and radiation stability in 1 M NaOH and a simulated neutralized current acid waste (NCAW). The objective of the study is to investigate the stability of the newly produced SuperLig{reg_sign}644 under a variety of conditions in an attempt to simulate and predict the degradation process. The following specific conclusions and recommendations resulted from the study