Treatment of radioactive liquid waste (Co-60) by sorption on Zeolite Na-A prepared from Iraqi kaolin

► Iraqi synthetic zeolite type Na-A has been suggested as ion exchange material to treat cobalt-60 in radioactive liquid waste which came from neutron activation for corrosion products. ► The ability of Na-A zeolite to remove cobalt from wastewater was checked for high cobalt concentration (822 mg/L) in addition to low cobalt concentration in the source sample (0.093 mg/L). ► The effects of important design variables on the zeolite column performance were studied these include initial concentration, flow rate, and bed depth. ► The experimental results show that high sorption capacity can be obtained at high influent concentration, low flow rate, and high bed depth. ► Higher column performance was obtained at higher bed depth.