Removal of strontium radionuclides from liquid scintillation waste and environmental water samples

Strontium-90 (t_1/2 = 29 y) is one of the most concerned isotopes in both nuclear accidents and reprocessing of nuclear fuel. In this study, the removal of strontium using low cost and valuable Dowex-HCR-S/S (DHS) resin was achieved. The kinetic and equilibrium sorption studies have been investigated using batch technique. The results of kinetic studies showed that the pseudo-second-order kinetic model was found to correlate well with the experimental data. Equilibrium data were also analyzed by sorption isotherm models indicating that the monolayer capacity of Sr(II) at equilibrium is 400.0 mg/g. It was concluded that resin has an efficient sorption capacity compared to many sorbents. The thermodynamic parameters of the removal (ΔH^o, ΔS^o, and ΔG^o) were also determined. The removal process was endothermic and spontaneous. The resin has been successfully applied for the removal of ⁸⁵Sr from organic liquid scintillator waste and some environmental waters such as tap water, river water, sea water and ground water samples. The present work concludes that the low-cost and commercial DHS resin used under these conditions has a major possibility as an efficacious material for the removal of ⁹⁰Sr from environmental and real radioactive wastewaters. It can therefore have a site in the treatment of radioactive liquid waste because it is of an affordable and commercially available retention material.