Laboratory-Scale SuperLig 639 Column Tests With Hanford Waste Simulants

This report describes the results of SuperLig{Reg} 639 column tests conducted at the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC) in support of the Hanford River Protection Project - Waste Treatment Plant (RPP-WTP). The RPP-WTP contract was awarded to Bechtel National Inc. (BNI) for the design, construction, and initial operation of a plant for the treatment and vitrification of millions of gallons of radioactive waste currently stored in tanks at Hanford, WA. Part of the current treatment process involves the removal of technetium from tank supernate solutions using columns containing SuperLig{Reg} 639 resin. This report is part of a body of work intended to quantify and optimize the operation of the technetium removal columns with regard to various parameters (such as liquid flow rate, column aspect ratio, resin particle size, loading and elution temperature, etc.). The tests were conducted using nonradioactive simulants of the actual tank waste samples containing rhenium as a surrogate for the technetium in the actual waste. A previous report focused on the impacts of liquid flow rate and column aspect ratio upon performance. More recent studies have focused on the impacts of resin particle size, solution composition, and temperature. This report describes column loading experiments conducted varying temperature and solution composition. Each loading experiment was followed by high temperature elution of the sorbed rhenium. Results from limited testing are also described which were intended to evaluate the physical stability of SuperLig{Reg} 639 resin during exposure to repeated temperature cycles covering the range of potential processing extremes