Silvia Dulanská

Magnetic Sorbent for Soil Remediation - A Waste for Waste Treatment

The possibility of decontaminating arable soil, forest soil, and gley soil, artificially contaminated by solutions of cesium-137, strontium-85, and europium-152, by contact in common suspension with magnetic residues of leached nickel ores (SOR) from the former Sered hydrometallurgical plant and its magnetic separation was demonstrated. More than 60–98% of cesium and strontium took part in the exchange between the soil and the magnetic sorbent and could be efficiently removed at sorbent mass to soil mass ratio as large as 5. Freundlich sorption isotherms were used for the evaluation of the driving forces of the transfer process. Actual soil remediation depends on the possibility of recycling used SOR: the speciation of sorbate indicates that the retention of strontium takes place in an exchangeable form but that of cesium and europium manifests through a more strong binding to the oxide component of SOR.

Determination of 93 Zr in radioactive waste using ion exchange techniques

This paper describes a simple and rapid method of 93Zr pre-concentration, separation and purification by using cation and anion exchange resins which are commercially available from Eichrom Technologies, Inc.,. The method is suitable for analyzing high contaminated radioactive waste samples in a relatively short time and high decontamination factors. The use and effectiveness of this method was successfully tested by analysis of heterogeneous waste from nuclear power plant and samples from nuclear reactor and fuel parts such as control rod drive shaft and neutron absorbers, shielding cassettes and neutron in-core measurement channels (KNI) samples.

Determination of 94Nb in radioactive waste using ion exchange chromatography

This paper describes a rapid method of 94Nb pre-concentration, separation and purification by using cation and anion exchange resins. The method is suitable for analyzing highly contaminated radioactive waste samples in a relatively short time and high decontamination factors. The use and effectiveness of the method was successfully tested by analysis of samples from nuclear reactor parts such as control rod drive shaft, shielding cassettes, neutron in-core measurement channels (KNI), pressure vessel construction material and fuel cassette construction material samples.

Rapid determination of 239,240Pu, 238Pu, 241Am and 90Sr in radioactive waste using combined SPE sorbents AnaLig® Pu02, AnaLig® Sr01 and TRU® Resin

A rapid separation method has been developed which allows measurement of plutonium, americium and strontium isotopes in the radioactive sludge from Nuclear power plant A1 Jaslovske Bohunice (NPP A1) with high chemical recoveries and effective removal of matrix interferences. This method uses different commercial products stacked AnaLig® Pu02, AnaLig® Sr01 and TRU® Resin cartridges from IBC Advanced Technologies and Eichrom Technologies. The method allows the rapid separation of plutonium, strontium and americium using a single multi-stage column in the vacuum box (cartridge technology) with rapid flow rates to minimize sample separation time. The 239,240Pu, 238Pu and 241Am were determined by alpha spectroscopy, 90Sr was counted on TRICARB 2900 TR by Cerenkov counting of its progeny 90Y.

Development of a method for the determination of 93Zr and 94Nb in radioactive waste using TEVA® resin

The behaviour of 95Zr and 95Nb isotopes on TEVA® resin column was studied. The influence of hydrofluoric, hydrochloric, oxalic and sulphuric acids on the separation and chemical yield of zirconium and niobium was tested. The method is suitable for the separation of 93Zr and 94Nb isotopes from hydrofluoric, hydrochloric and sulphuric acid by using different concentrations of the acid for the load or elutes solutions. Samples from reactor and fuel assemblies such as the control-rod connection rod, shielding/absorber parts of fuel rods, neutron in-core measurement channels, pressure vessel basic construction material and internal cladding, core barrel and reactor protection tube unit were analysed.

Rapid determination of 90Sr in urine samples using AnaLig® Sr-01

This paper describes the use of IBC’s AnaLig® Sr-01 molecular recognition technology product to effectively and selectively pre-concentrate, separate, and recover strontium from urine samples. This method uses two-stage columns separation consisting of two different commercial products Eichrom’s Pre-filter Material and AnaLig® Sr-01 column from IBC Advanced Technologies. This method does not involve co-precipitation of strontium as phosphates and oxalates from urine samples. The new rapid method separates strontium-90 with high chemical recovery.

Separation Techniques for Quantification of Radionuclides in Environmental Samples

The reliable and quantitative measurement of radionuclides is important in order to determine environmental quality and radiation safety, and to monitor regulatory compliance. We examined soil samples from Podunajske Biskupice, near the city of Bratislava in the Slovak Republic, for the presence of several natural (U, Th, K) and anthropogenic (Cs, Sr, Pu, Pu, Am) radionuclides. The area is adjacent to a refinery and hazardous waste processing center, as well as the municipal incinerator plant, and so might possess an unusually high level of ecotoxic metals. We found that the levels of both naturally occurring and anthropogenic radionuclides fell within the expected ranges, indicating that these facilities pose no radiological threat to the local environment. During the course of our analysis, we modified existing techniques in order to allow us to handle the unusually large and complex samples that were needed to determine the levels of Pu, Pu, and Am activity. We also rated three commercial techniques for the separation of 90Sr from aqueous solutions and found that two of them, AnaLig Sr-01 and Empore Extraction Disks, were suitable for the quantitative and reliable separation of Sr, while the third, Sr-Spec Resin, was less so. The main criterion in evaluating these methods was the chemical recovery of Sr, which was less than we had expected. We also considered speed of separation and additional steps needed to prepare the sample for separation.

Rapid determination of 239,240Pu, 238Pu, 241Am and 90Sr in high contaminated samples waste using combined SPE sorbents AnaLig® Pu-02, AnaLig® Sr-01 and DGA® Resin

A rapid separation method has been developed which allows measurement of plutonium, americium and strontium isotopes in the high active sample from CBRN Training and Testing Centre in Zemianske Kostolany (Slovakia) with high chemical recoveries and effective removal of matrix interferences. This method uses different commercial products stacked AnaLig® Pu-02, AnaLig® Sr-01 and DGA® Resin cartridges from IBC Advanced Technologies and Eichrom Technologies. The method allows rapid separation of plutonium, strontium and americium using a single multi-stage column in the vacuum box (cartridge technology) with rapid flow rates to minimize sample separation time. The 239,240Pu, 238Pu and 241Am were determined by alpha spectroscopy, 90Sr was counted on TRICARB 2900 TR by Cerenkov counting of its progeny 90Y.

Determination of 239 Pu, 241 Am and 90 Sr in urine using pre-filter material and combined sorbents AnaLig ® Pu-02, AnaLig ® Sr-01, DGA ® Resin

This method uses stacked column separations consisting of different commercial products pre-filter material, DGA® Resin from Eichrom Technologies and AnaLig® Pu-02 gel, AnaLig® Sr-01 gel from IBC Advanced Technologies. Raw urine was acidified and passed directly through the resin columns. The method was successfully tested by adding of National Physical Laboratory (NPL) Alpha–Beta High 2005 sample with known activities of radionucledes to urine samples. The demonstrated linear model clearly proves that the residua fulfill the Gaussian model, without any autocorrelation and trend for intercomparison NPL Alpha–Beta High 2005 sample. By eliminating the co-precipitation techniques and the ashing steps to remove residual organics, the analysis time was reduced significantly.

Statistical suitability testing of 3M Empore™ Sr disc and AnaLig® Sr-01 use for 90Sr determination

In this paper rapid separation methods for strontium determination using molecular recognition technology products 3M Empore™ Sr disc, AnaLig® Sr-01 and extraction chromatography Sr® Resin were presented and statistical tested. The methods performance was investigated by analysis of NPL (High Alpha–Beta 2003) and (High Alpha–Beta 2005) intercomparison samples. The presented results were evaluated as correct for all experimental data. We used linear regression (with regression diagnostics), t test and the mean of variable using 90Sr with 3M Empore™ Sr disc, AnaLig® Sr-01 and Sr® Resin.