Macroporous LTA-monoliths for in-flow removal of radioactive strontium from aqueous effluents: Application to the case of Fukushima

Fukushima disaster has lead to a large amount of contaminated seawater by radionuclides as caesium and strontium. Cs-137 is a beta-gamma emitter and Sr-90 is a beta-emitter with respective half-lives of 30 and 29 years. Innovative technologies are needed to treat such complex effluent: presence of competing cations (Ca2+, Na+). neutral pH (pH 7-8), together with an easy way of final disposal. We show here that a novel material appearing as a macroporous zeolite A monolith (named LTA-monolith) proves efficient for sorptive removal of Sr2+ ions from salty aqueous solutions in continuous flow process. LTA-monolith shows high efficiency and selectivity for the in-flow treatment of radioactive water as simulated Fukushima seawater containing high amount of Na+ (9.6 g L-1), Ca2+ (0.4 g L-1), Mg2+ (1.28 g L-1), K. (0.5 g L-1) and Sr2+ (7.8 mg L-1), as well as radioactive 90Sr(2+) (5.5 ng L-1, 28 kBq L-1). LTA-monolith in-flow process discloses a decontamination capacity four times higher in comparison to batch processes. Furthermore LTA-monolith can be directly used as storage radioactive matter without solidification to perform. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.