Alternate Methods for Eluting Cesium from Spherical Resorcinol-Formaldehyde Resin

A small-column ion exchange (SCIX) system has been proposed for removing cesium from the supernate and dissolved salt solutions in the high-level-waste tanks at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The SCIX system could use either crystalline silicotitanate (CST), an inorganic, non-regenerable sorbent, or spherical resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF), a new regenerable resin, to remove cesium from the waste solutions. The baseline method for eluting the cesium from the RF resin uses 15 bed volumes (BV) of 0.5 M nitric acid (HNO{sub 3}). The nitric acid eluate, containing the radioactive cesium, would be combined with the sludge from the waste tanks and would be converted into glass at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) at SRS. The amount of nitric acid that would be used to elute the RF resin, using the current elution protocol, exceeds the capacity of DWPF to destroy the nitrate ions and maintain the required chemical reducing environment in the glass melt. Installing a denitration evaporator at SRS is technically feasible but would add considerable cost to the project. Alternate methods for eluting the resin have been tested, including using lower concentrations of nitric acid, other acids, and changing the flow regimes. About 4 BV of 0.5 M HNO{sub 3} are required to remove the sodium (titrate the resin) and most of the cesium from the resin, so the bulk of the acid used for the baseline elution method removes a very small quantity of cesium from the resin. A summary of the elution methods that have been tested are listed