Treatment of spent radioactive anionic exchange resins using Fenton-like oxidation process

• The spent radioactive resins could be degraded by Fenton-like oxidation.
• The operational conditions for resin oxidation were optimized.
• Chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction rate was more than 90%.
• The resin morphological change during oxidation was observed using SEM.

The treatment and disposal of spent radioactive ion exchange resins produced during the operation of the nuclear facilities is of great importance to minimize their potential hazard to the environments. In this paper, the degradation and disintegration of spent anionic resins was carried out using the Fenton-like oxidation process to reduce their volume and weight. The influencing factors, such as temperature, initial concentration of Cu(II), pH value were determined. The experimental results showed that the degradation efficiency (in term of COD removal rate), weight and volume reduction percentage was 97%, 68%, 75%, respectively, when pH was 3, Cu(II) concentration was 0.5 M and temperature was 95 ± 2 °C. The SEM observation indicated the process of resin disintegration and dissolution. The Raman and FTIR spectrum provided the information of functional groups change of resins during oxidation process, which is useful for further studying the intermediate products of resin degradation. The possible mechanism of anionic resins degradation was proposed to explain why they were difficult to degrade. Fenton-like oxidation process was a potential and promising method for significant volume reduction of spent radioactive resins.