Recent advances in Fenton-like treatment of radioactive ion exchange resins

Ion exchange resins (IERs) are widely used to remove radioactive contaminants from various commercial nuclear power plant systems. After the completion of their useful life cycle, IERs are removed from the nuclear facility and are known as spent resins. In the past few decades, the development of Fenton/Fenton-like treatments for the management of spent resins has received considerable attention because of their potential to completely break down the IER structure into harmless compounds (e.g., carbon dioxide, water, and inorganic salts). In addition, after Fenton-like treatments, the resulting solutions containing radionuclides can be easily immobilized to stable waste. In this review, we critically discuss the key developments in Fenton/Fenton-like dissolution, degradation, and mineralization of spent resins. We describe the important reaction parameters (initial pH, resin dosage, catalyst type and dosage, hydrogen peroxide dosage, flow rates of the catalyst and oxidant, reaction temperature, treatment time, and other specific parameters) for various Fenton/Fenton-like treatments of spent resins. Moreover, this review focuses heavily on the major reaction intermediates generated in Fenton-like treatments. In the final section of this review (conclusions and perspectives), we discuss the major challenges and suggest future research directions need to be addressed to improve the efficiency of Fenton-like treatments of spent resins.