• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.675-682
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• 2013

The sequential separation process, composed of an oxygen sparging process for separating lanthanides and a zone freezing process for separating Group I and II fission products, was evaluated and tested with a surrogate eutectic waste salt generated from pyroprocessing of used metal nuclear fuel. During the oxygen sparging process, the used lanthanide chlorides (Y, Ce, Pr and Nd) were converted into their sat-insoluble precipitates, over 99.5% at $800^{\circ}C$; however, Group I (Cs) and II (Sr) chlorides were not converted but remained within the eutectic salt bed. In the next process, zone freezing, both precipitation of lanthanide precipitates and concentration of Group I/II elements were preformed. The separation efficiency of Cs and Sr increased with a decrease in the crucible moving speed, and there was little effect of crucible moving speed on the separation efficiency of Cs and Sr in the range of a 3.7 - 4.8 mm/hr. When assuming a 60% eutectic salt reuse rate, over 90% separation efficiency of Cs and Sr is possible, but when increasing the eutectic salt reuse rate to 80%, a separation efficiency of about 82 - 86 % for Cs and Sr was estimated.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.867-874
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• 2015

Separation of cesium chloride (CsCl) and strontium chloride ($SrCl_2$) from the lithium chloride-potassium chloride (LiCl-KCl) salt was studied using a melt crystallization process similar to the reverse vertical Bridgeman growth technique. A ternary $SrCl_2-LiCl-KCl$ salt was explored at similar growth rates (1.8-5 mm/h) and compared with CsCl ternary results to identify similarities. Quaternary experiments were also conducted and compared with the ternary cases to identify trends and possible limitations to the separations process. In the ternary case, as much as 68% of the total salt could be recycled per batch process. In the quaternary experiments, separation of Cs and Sr was nearly identical at the slower rates; however, as the growth rate increased, $SrCl_2$ separated more easily than CsCl. The quaternary results show less separation and rate dependence than in both ternary cases. As an estimated result, only 51% of the total salt could be recycled per batch. Furthermore, two models have been explored to further understand the growth process and separation. A comparison of the experimental and modeling results reveals that the nonmixed model fits reasonably well with the ternary and quaternary data sets. A dimensional analysis was performed and a correlation was identified to semipredict the segregation coefficient.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.57-63
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• 2010

Layer crystallization process was tested for the separation(or concentration) of cesium and strontium fission products in a LiCl waste salt generated from an electrolytic reduction process of a spent oxide fuel. In a crystallization process, impurities (CsCl and $SrCl_2$) are concentrated in a small fraction of the LiCl salt by the solubility difference between the melt phase and the crystal phase. Based on the phase diagram of LiCl-CsCl-$SrCl_2$ system, the separation possibility by using crystallization was determined and the molten salt temperature profile during layer crystallization operation was predicted by using mathematical calculation. In the layer crystallization process, the crystal growth rate strongly affects the crystal structure and therefore the separation efficiency. In the conditions of about 20-25 l/min cooling air flow rate and less than 0.2g/min/$cm^2$ crystal flux, the separation efficiency of both CsCl and $SrCl_2$ showed about 90% by the layer crystallization process, assuming a LiCl salt reuse rate of 90wt%.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.123-129
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• 2024

We present a rapid method for the determination of Cs, Sr, and Ba, heat generators found in highly active liquid wastes, by gas-pressurized extraction chromatography (GPEC) using a column containing a cation-exchange resin. GPEC is a microscale column chromatographic technique that uses a constant flow rate of solvent (0.07 mL/min) with pressurized nitrogen gas supplied through a valve. In particular, because this method uses a small sample volume (a few hundred microliters), it produces less chemical waste and allows for faster separation compared to traditional column chromatography. In this study, we evaluated the separation of Cs, Sr, and Ba using GPEC. The eluate from the column (GPEC or conventional column chromatography) was quantitatively analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry to measure the column recovery and precision. The column reproducibility of the proposed GPEC system (RSDs of recoveries) ranged from 2.7 to 4.1 %, and the column recoveries for the three elements ranged from 72 to 98% when aqueous HCl was used as the eluent. The GPEC results are slightly different in efficiency and separation resolution compared to those of conventional column chromatography because of the differences in the eluent flow rate as well as the internal diameter and length of the column. However, the two methods had similar recoveries for Cs and Sr, and the precision of GPEC was improved by two-fold. Remarkably, the solvent volume required for GPEC analysis was five times lower than that of the conventional method, and the total analysis time was 11 times shorter.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.739-745
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• 1993

The characteristics of mass transfer in an inorganic ion exchange system where Cs and/or Sr are separated by means of zeolites was investigated. Experimental work to separate Cs or Sr was carried out for Cs-AW300 and CS-AW500 systems in case of Cs whereas for Sr-4A and Sr-13X systems in case of Sr. The experimental conditions were chosen as follows in the batch type separation : temperature $25^{\circ}C$, agitation speed 300rpm, amount of zeolite 4g, volume of solution $0.5{\ell}$, and concentrations of solution 1000ppm, 2000ppm, respectively. As a result, it was found that the mass transfer rate is controlled mainly by the liquid film diffusion. The mass transfer coefficients in the film were found to be in the range of $10^{-4}{\sim}10^{-3}cm/sec$, while the apparent diffusivity inside the particles was found to be in the order of $10^{-8}cm^2/sec$.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.731-738
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• 1993

This study showed the adsorption behavior of Cs and Sr into the inorganic ion-exchanger zeolites such as 4A, 13X, AW300, AW500 and natural. It was found that the best type of zeolite is AW500 for Cs and 13X for Sr in terms of ion-exchange capacity. The temperature effect was also examined for the following systems : AW500-Cs, AW300-Cs, natural zeolite-Cs, 4A-Sr and 13X-Sr. Experiments showed that the effect of temperature on the ion-exchange capacity is negligible in all cases except for the systems of 4A-Sr and natural zeolite-Cs. The enhancement in the ion-exchange capacity for 4A-Sr would be caused by the Sr ion movement and the multilayer adsorption due to the heterogeneous characteristics of ion-exchange site. The distribution coefficient was increased with pH of the solution which is in equilibrium with zeolite particles. The values of $K_d$ in the systems of AW500-Cs and 4A-Sr were found to be about $10^3cm^3/g$ and $10^3{\sim}10^4cm^3/g$ respectively.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2002

The selective removal of cesium by ammonium molybdophosphate (AMP) was studied in order to reduce an interference by high radioactivity of cesium on the determination of low radioactive elements in leachate of spent fuel. The removal of Cs, U, Ce, La, Co Ca, Na Sr and K was investigated for the leachate and the bentonite in contact with a spent fuel. More than 90% of cesium was removed by AMP and Ca, Na, Co and Sr was remained in 0.1 M $HNO_3$. However, three valence elements such as La and Ce were also removed by AMP. Though a little of potassium of the bentonite components was adsorbed on AMP, the potassium in the bentonite solution diluted to its concentration in a real sample would not affect the capacity of AMP greatly. From another experiment for the separation of strontium as a leaching indicator of spent fuel, the recovery of strontium in 8.0 M $HNO_3$ solution by using Sr-resin (Eichrom, P/N SR-B50-A) was more than 95% by eluting with 0.05 M $HNO_3$.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.437-448
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• 2017

A high quality Na-X zeolite membrane was synthesized on a seeded ${\alpha}-alumina$ disc by the secondary growth method. Structural characterization was done by X-ray spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, SEM and AFM imaging. The performance evaluation of the membrane was firstly tested in separation of glucose/water solutions by pervaporation process. There was obtained a separation factor $182.7{\pm}8.8$, while the flux through the membrane was $3.6{\pm}0.3kg\;m^{-2}\;h^{-1}$. The zeolite membrane was then used for desalination of aqueous solutions consisting of $Na^+$, $Ca^{2+}$, $Cs^+$ and $Sr^{2+}$ because of the importance of these ions in water and wastewater treatments. The effects of some parameters such as temperature and solution concentration on the desalination process were studied for investigating of diffusion/adsorption mechanism in membrane separation. Finally, high water fluxes ranged from 2 up to $9kg\;m^{-2}\;h^{-1}$ were obtained and the rejection factors were resulted more than 95% for $Na^+$ and $Ca^{2+}$ and near to 99% for $Cs^+$ and $Sr^{2+}$. Based on the results, fluxes were significantly improved due to convenient passage of water molecules from large pores of NaX, while the fouling was declining dramatically. Based on the results, NaX zeolite can efficiently use for the removal of different cations from wastewaters.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.421-428
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• 1998

A method has been studied to separate Zr from various fission products in PWR spent nuclear fuels. A solution containing metal ions in place of radioactive fission products was prepared. The Zr was separated with 5 M HCl followed by eluting metal ions such as Ce, Nd, Cs, Rb, Ba, Sr, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag and Cd with 12 M HCl on Dowex $1{\times}8$, anion exchange resin. The recovery of Zr was more than 95%. The purification of Zr was carried out on anion exchange resin, Dowex $1{\times}8$, in 5 M HCl in order to remove Mo causing isobaric effect during mass spectrometry. The method was applied to separate Zr from a spent PWR fuel. From mass spectrometric measurement, the purified Zr portion was not showed the isobars from other elements such as Mo and Sr.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2018.11a
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• pp.379-379
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• 2018

MXenes are a new family of 2D transition metal carbide nanosheets analogous to graphene (Lv et al., 2017; Sun et al., 2018). Due to the easy availability, hydrophilic behavior, and tunable chemistry of MXenes, their use in applications for environmental pollution remediation such as heavy metal adsorption has recently been explored (Li et al., 2017). In this study, three-dimensional (3D) MXene ($Ti_3C_2T_x$) films with high adsorption capacity, good mechanical strength, and high selectivity for specific radionuclide from aquose solution were successfully fabricated by a polymeric precursor method using vacuum-assisted filtration. The highest removal efficiency on the films was 99.54%, 95.61%, and 82.79% for $Sr^{2+}$, $Co^{2+}$, and $Cs^+$, respectively, using a film dosage of 0.06 g/ L in the initial radionuclide solution (each radionuclide concentration = 1 mg/L and pH = 7.0). Especially, the adsorption process reached an equilibrium within 30 min. The expanded interlayer spacing of $Ti_3C_2T_x$ sheets in MXene films showed excellent radionuclide selectivity ($Cs^+$ and/or $Sr^{2+}/Co^{2+}$) (Simon, 2017). Besides, the MXene films was not only able to be easily retrieved from an aqueous solution by filtration after decontamination processes, but also to selectively separate desired target radionuclides in the solutions. Therefore, the newly developed MXene ($Ti_3C_2T_x$) films has a great potential for radionuclide removal from aqueous solution.