Evaluation of selected ion exchangers for the removal of cesium from MVST W-25 supernate

The goal of this batch-test equilibration study was to evaluate the effectiveness of certain ion exchangers for removing cesium from supernate taken from tank W-25 of the Melton Valley Storage Tank (MVST) Facility located at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). These exchangers were selective for removing cesium from alkaline supernatant solutions with high salt concentrations. Since the supernates of evaporator concentrates stored in tanks at the MVST facility have compositions similar to some of those stored in tanks at Hanford, the data generated in this study should prove useful in the overall evaluation of the ion exchangers for applications to Hanford and other US Department of Energy (USDOE) sites. A goal of the waste processing effort at Hanford is to remove enough cesium to ensure that the resulting LLW will meet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 10 CFR 61 class A limit for {sup 137}Cs (1 Ci/m{sup 3} or 1 {mu}Ci/mL). The separated cesium may be concentrated and vitrified for disposal in the high-level waste repository. The decontaminated effluent would be solidified for near-surface disposal