Electroactive Materials for Anion Separation -- Technetium from Nitrate

The general aim of this project is to design and prepare new electroactive ion-exchange (EaIX) materials that can be used to remove the radioactive components from high-level radioactive waste (HLW) at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites nationwide. The specific objective is to develop and investigate redox-active polymers, such as polyvinylferrocene (PVF), that can be used to remove pertechnetate (TcO{sub 4{sup -}}) ion from HLW. Electroactive materials are an important class of materials for this application because they can minimize or eliminate secondary waste streams associated with HLW processing, thereby reducing the costs of environmental cleanup. The technologies currently available for treatment and disposal of approximately 90 million gallons of HLW at the DOE Savannah River Site, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, and Hanford Site are neither cost-effective nor practical. Processes to separate the HLW constituents from the low-level waste (LLW) fraction are required to reduce the volume of waste that must be treated and disposed of and to reduce the cost of treatment and disposal. Use of EaIX materials, conjoined with the use of porous membranes that also are under development, can significantly reduce or eliminate secondary wastes associated with more traditional ion-exchange or solvent extraction technologies and, thus, can help improve the effectiveness and reduce the cost of DOE's waste treatment and disposal efforts. Beyond its importance as a cost issue, separation of TcO{sub 4{sup -}} from HLW also addresses a critical environmental issue. The most common isotope of technetium ({sup 99}Tc) has an extremely long half-life of 210,000 years. Rapid development of advanced methods to remove and separate this long-lived radioactive isotope is important because most of the technetium in the DOE HLW probably is in the form of TcO{sub 4{sup -}}, which is highly mobile in soils and groundwater. This project is focused on anion separation and, in particular, the selective separation of TcO{sub 4{sup -}} from a solution containing excess NO{sub 3{sup -}}. The results of this research can be used to also design EaIX materials to remove other anions