Membrane purification in radioactive waste management: a short review

Radiation hazards of radionuclides arising from nuclear plant facilities are well known. Separation technologies are used to concentrate the radionuclides and prevent the spread of this hazard to the environment. The present review describes the recent advances made in radioactive waste treatment using membrane separation technology. The first part discusses the membrane methods for collective separation of radionuclides and the second part discusses the membrane methods for selective separation of individual radionuclides. For the collection separation of radionulides, methods include reverse osmosis, precipitation followed by ultrafiltration or microfiltration and membrane distillation. Individual elements have been separated using liquid supported membranes, polymer inclusion membranes, solid polymer based electrolysis, nanofiltration, electrochemical salt-splitting process and other advanced separation methods. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.