Ion-Exchange Separation of ⁶⁰Co and ¹²⁵Sb from Zirconium for Radioactive Waste Management

The State of Critical and Strategic Metals Recovery and the Role of Nuclear Techniques in the Separation Technologies Development: Review

“…Synthetic zeolite (Z and YZ) and natural (clinoptilolite) composites with polyacrylamide (PAAm) are some of the other materials developed for the cation adsorption processes. The sorption properties of minerals for these surfaces and their materials were examined for Tb counterparts to REEs using the isotopic tracer technique, with 160 Tb functioning as the radiotracer. Tb 3+ was chosen to represent the REEs (lanthanides) with comparable physicochemical characteristics, with the benefits of 160 Tb being its high natural availability (100%), relatively short half-life (72 days), and high cross-section for the thermal neutron capture (α = 25.5 b) of its precursor.…”

“…The sorption properties of minerals for these surfaces and their materials were examined for Tb counterparts to REEs using the isotopic tracer technique, with 160 Tb functioning as the radiotracer. Tb 3+ was chosen to represent the REEs (lanthanides) with comparable physicochemical characteristics, with the benefits of 160 Tb being its high natural availability (100%), relatively short half-life (72 days), and high cross-section for the thermal neutron capture (α = 25.5 b) of its precursor. Tb, like the other lanthanides, is essential in the industry; it is utilized in cathode ray tubes, optical computer memory, magnets, and other applications.…”

“…wherein A i and A e are the activities recorded in the standard and equilibrium solutions, respectively. The radio-activities were used to compute the percentage transfer (F) of 160 Tb to solid phase from Tb 3+ mixtures. The adsorbed quantities (mol kg −1 ) were estimated as Q = [FCiV/w], where Ci is the initial Tb 3+ content (M), w is the adsorbent mass (kg), and V is the volume of the solution (L).…”

“…Likewise, the viability of separating Co and Sb from Zr in acid solutions can be conducted using the ion-exchange resins (Dowex 50-X8 and Dowex 1-X8 resins) [160]. Using 60 Co, 95 Zr, and 125 Sb radiotracers diluted in 0.25 mL HF and 0.25 mL HNO 3 , the distribution coefficients of 60 Co, 95 Zr, and 125 Sb on potent cation and anion exchangers in HCl and oxalic acidic environments were evaluated [160]. Employing a High-Purity Germanium detector, the count rates of the solvents before and after equilibrium with the ion exchangers were monitored.…”

Chemicals and Allied Products Waste Treatment

“…Devi et al discussed a novel method of treating zirconium radioactive waste by using ion-exchange resins for separation of cobalt and antimony from zirconium occurred, where the decontamination factor was greater than 10 3 , achieved in an ion-exchange range with cobalt and antimony, reducing the waste volume [1]. Ko et al found that conventional animal feeding operations (CAFOs) consider 424 microbial air samples and 12 CAFOs analyzed using indicator and pathogenic microorganisms, where 4.5% fecal coliform, 1.2% E.coli, 22.2% Clostridium, and 12.3% total coliphage.…”