Monosodium titanate in hydrous titanium oxide spheres for the removal of strontium and key actinides from salt solutions at the Savannah River Site

Fine powders of monosodium titanate effectively remove strontium and plutonium from alkaline salt supernatant. At the Savannah River Site, larger, porous particles with monosodium titanate were desired for continuous column operations. The internal gelation process was used to make hydrous titanium oxide microspheres with 32 and 50 wt% monosodium titanate. With actual supernatant, the microspheres with 50 wt% monosodium titanate produced average batch distribution coefficients of 35,000 mL/g for plutonium and 99,000 mL/g for strontium. These microspheres were tested using a simulant and a flow rate of 5.3 bed volumes per hour. The plutonium removal dropped from 99% to 94% while the strontium removal remained nearly 100%. The microspheres exhibited good flow performance and no particle degradation.