Evaluation of electrochemical ion exchange for cesium elution

Electrochemical elution was investigated as an alternative method to acid elution for the desorption of cesium from loaded ion exchange resins. The approach was found to have several potential advantages over existing technologies, in particular, electrochemical elution eliminates the need for addition of chemicals to elute cesium from the ion exchange resin. Also, since, in the electrochemical elution process the eluting solution is not in direct contact with the ion exchange material, very small volumes of the eluting solution can be used in a complete recycle mode in order to minimize the total volume of the cesium elute. In addition, the cesium is eluted as an alkaline solution that does not require neutralization with caustic to meet the tank farm specifications. Other advantages include easy incorporation of the electrochemical elution process into the present cesium recovery schemes.