Crystalline Titanate Ceramic for Immobilization of Tc-99

Abstract

ABSTRACTTechnetium-99 is considered as one of the most dangerous nuclear environmental pollutants due to its long half-life (210,000 y.) and high mobility in aqueous solutions under oxidizing conditions. Development of sorbents, which are capable of irreversible uptake of Tc and further direct conversion into durable ceramic waste forms, is an important field of research. Titanate ceramic doped with up to 10 wt. % Tc was successfully synthesized using Layered Hydrazinium Titanate, LHT-9 (PCT/EP2010/001864) as starting precursor. LHT-9 is a new advanced compound of general formula (N2H5)1/2Ti1.87O4xH2O containing 6-7 wt. % of hydrazine chemically incorporated into a TiO2-based matrix. It was demonstrated that LHT-9 (5g/l) can reductively adsorb up to 90.2 wt. % of Tc from aqueous solutions containing 0.5g Tc/l. The obtained adsorption products can be easily converted into stable titanate ceramic by one-step sintering in argon atmosphere at 1200°C. Phase and chemical composition of synthesized Tc-doped ceramic are discussed.