The effect of corrosion particles present in water solutions on the behavior of strong acid cation-exchange resins during the process of cobalt removal Original Research Article

The effect of the presence of corrosion particles on the behavior of different structure types of cation-exchange resins during the adsorption process of 60Co from water solutions was studied. Comparative valuation of sorption behavior and capacity of polyreticular and monoreticular structure type cation-exchangers was carried out. It was found that the ion-exchange filtration efficieny depends upon the presence of corrosion particles on the surface of ion-exchange beads and in their pore structure. The cation-exchange process of 60Co is affected differently by different structure type ion-exchange resins. The fouling phenomenon caused by iron-corrosion particles during the water clean-up process at a RWCU system in BWR and by CVSE demineralizers in PWR dose not affect negative phenomenon for ion-exchange behavior of ion-exchange resins to remove polyvalent ions from the water. The polyreticular cation exchanger Amberlite 200C can better remove 60Co cations from water solutions than the monoreticular (gel type) cation-exchanger Amberlite IR 120. Evidently this is due to the true porous macroreticular structure of the cation-exchange beads. In parallel with the ion-exchange processes, the sorption process of the corrosion products situated on the larger surface area of the true physical pore structure of Amberlite 200C also plays an important role. The information obtained will be very useful to the technological service of nuclear power stations.