Separation of Radionuclides from Water by Magnesium Oxide Adsorption

Abstract

Adsorption by magnesium oxide of more than forty radionuclides in respective ionic species in water was observed. Generally, the radionuclides in di-valent and/or multi-valent cations are favorably adsorbed by magnesium oxide; but not for the those in mono-valent cations. In addition, the adsorption by magnesium oxide was not effective to most of the radionuclides in negative ionic species. From the observations, the adsorption mechanism is more prominently by the ion exchange of the di- or multi-valent cation species with the hydrous magnesium oxide. Separation of the radionuclides related to the corrosion products possibly produced in a nuclear power plant from natural seawater was attempted by the magnesium oxide adsorption method. It should be emphasized that the adsorption method was found to be practical for separating radionuclides from a large quantity of natural seawater with high recovery and high reproducibility.