Preparation and Evaluation of Epoxy-based Polymeric Sorbents with Potential Applications in Nuclear Wastewater Decontamination and Management

With the Philippines set to include nuclear power in its energy mix, effective nuclear waste decontamination strategies must be developed. Spent nuclear fuel water waste contains very high concentrations of HNO3 and a variety of metal ions which makes sorbent development for radionuclide sequestration extremely difficult. In this study, we report two polymeric resin sorbents prepared by curing bis-epoxides with diaminopropane in dimethyl sulfoxide. The sorbents Ep-NGDE and Ep-BOMB are able to resist physical deterioration in 3 M HNO3 while exhibiting unique sorption characteristics that may prove useful in nuclear water waste decontamination. Ep-NGDE exhibits high capacity and selectivity for Na+ while Ep-BOMB exhibits high capacity for radionuclides Cs+ and Sr2+. The reasons underlying their sorption behaviors are navigated and a procedure for their deployment is proposed.