BIOMEDY
Applications RAXORB
App Rx504 - Decontamination from radionuclides of condensates of evaporators at B504 nuclear power plant
Processing of radioactive wastes leads to the formation of radioactive condensates of evaporators (debalance water) containing ammonia as the basic compound in the concentration of 7 - 25 mg/dm3 and having a pH value ranging 7.0 - 8.5. Besides, oils and other organic compounds are usually present in the water.

RAXORB3/5, a granular (0.4 - 1.0 mm spheres) selective ion-exchanger, chemically composed of ferrocyanide of divalent metals fixed on inorganic carrier, was used as sorbents in the construction of a filter system for the decontamination of the secondary condensate of evaporators at B504 nuclear power plant.

Because the aggregate radioactivity of initial condensate was of 3.37x10-8 Ci/l on radionuclides 134Cs and 137Cs, RAXORB3/5 was chosen since its selectivity towards Cesium which absorption ratio is:

  • from debalance water > 1x104 cm3/g
  • from 0.01 mole/dm3 of NH4Cl > 1x104 cm3/g
  • from 0.5 mole/dm3 of NH4Cl > 1x104 cm3/g

After filtering 60,000 times the volume of sorbent it was noticed that the RAXORB3/5 was still active and that the mean specific activity of the sorbent on cesium radionuclides was 9.8x10-4 Ci/l.
Deactivation Dynamic
Volume of the filtered condensate (times of the column volume [N] )
Filtrate activity [Ci/l]
Deactivation rate
100
<1.5x10-10
>225
1,000
<1.5x10-10
>225
5,000
<1.5x10-10
>225
10,000
<1.5x10-10
>225
20,000
<1.5x10-10
>225
30,000
<1.5x10-10
>225
40,000
2.4x10-10
140
50,000
3.2x10-10
105
60,000
2.6x10-10
130