Spherical resorcinol-formaldehyde performance testing with Hanford tank waste

The efficacy of a new spherically engineered form of resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) resin was tested for cesium removal on two actual Hanford tank wastes. Small-scale processing was conducted according to the River Protection Project-Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant flowsheet in a lead-lag column format. The RF resin processed 95 bed volumes (BVs) of high potassium-bearing waste (AP-101) and >200BVs of a high complexant-bearing waste (AN-102) before reaching 50% cesium breakthrough. Elution with 0.5M nitric acid was effective and complete after processing 16 BVs. Cesium and other analyte fractionations to the process stream effluent and eluate were evaluated. The RF resin resulted in very little metal and radionuclide fractionation, other than cesium, to the eluate. The spent resins were measured for most analytes relevant to land-disposal requirements. The actinide concentrations on the spent resins were <3% of the transuranic waste limit; the residual cesium concentrations were <4mCi/kg; chromium was the only metal, regulated by the Resource Conservation Recovery Act, that was measured in quantities significant to land-disposal regulations.