Radiotracer application for characterization of nuclear grade anion exchange resins Tulsion A-23 and Dowex SBR LC

Abstract

Abstract Radio isotopic tracer technique as one of the versatile nondestructive technique is employed to evaluate the performance of nuclear grade anion exchange resins Tulsion A-23 and Dowex SBR LC. The evaluation was made on the basis of ion-isotopic exchange reaction kinetics by using 131I and 82Br radioactive tracer isotopes. It was observed that for both the resins, the values of specific reaction rate (min−1), amount of ion exchanged (mmol) and initial rate of ion exchange (mmol/min) were calculated to be lower for bromide ion-isotopic exchange reaction than that for iodide ion-isotopic exchange reaction. It was observed that for iodide ion-isotopic exchange reaction under identical experimental conditions of 30.0 °C, 1.000 g of ion exchange resins and 0.001 mol/L labeled iodide ion solution, the values of specific reaction rate (min−1), amount of iodide ion exchanged (mmol), initial rate of iodide ion exchange (mmol/min) and log Kd were calculated as 0.377, 0.212, 0.080 and 15.5 respectively for Dowex SBR LC resin, which was higher than 0.215, 0.144, 0.031 and 14.1 respectively as that obtained for Tulsion A23 resins. Also at a constant temperature of 30.0 °C, as the concentration of labeled iodide ion solution increases from 0.001 mol/L to 0.004 mol/L, the percentage of iodide ions exchanged increases from 84.75 % to 90.20 % for Dowex SBR LC resins which was higher than increases from 57.66 % to 62.38 % obtained for Tulsion A23 resins. The identical trend was observed for the two resins during bromide ion-isotopic exchange reaction. The overall results indicate superior performance of Dowex SBR LC over Tulsion A23 resins under identical experimental conditions.