Treatment of laboratory generated radioactive organic liquid waste using a novel ionic liquid based resin: A feasibility study

In the present communication, the feasibility of the treatment of laboratory radioactive organic waste generated during the spent fuel reprocessing in the nuclear industry was explored using a novel ionic liquid based resin. The idea was intended in a direction of reducing the large volume of waste remarkably to a small sized solid waste that can conveniently be dealt for the waste management process. The organic phase chosen for the study was n- dodecane (n-DD) based waste containing unknown concentrations of trialkyl phosphate based extractants (TAlP) ligated with mostly Pu(IV). In the resin phase, a strongly hydrophobic and sustainable ionic liquid (IL): Cyphos nitrate (Trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium nitrate: [P66614][NO3]) was used for impregnating onto a polymeric resin bead (XAD 7). Batch studies indicated a significant reduction of gross radioactivity after the treatment with IL-resin and the efficacy of the resin was ascertained from the adsorption experiments at various experimental conditions such as % IL grafted, equilibration time and solid-to-liquid ratio. The column study of the organic waste inferred an appreciable reduction in the gross activity while treating a bulk volume of the waste.