Application of “Hydration Model” to Evaluate Gas Phase Transfer of Ruthenium and Technetium from Reprocessing Solutions

In order to evaluate the amounts of gas phase transferred ruthenium (Ru), and technetium (Tc), simulations were made for the continuous evaporator used in a reprocessing plant to concentrate high level liquid waste. The concentrations and activities of nitric acid and water, which controlled the reaction rate and gas-liquid equilibrium in the evaporator solution, were evaluated using the previously developed “Hydration Model”. When the feed solution contained 2.7 M (=mol/dm³) of nitric acid, the nitric acid concentration in the evaporator solution reached its maximum at the concentration factor (CF) of 6 (CF: concentration ratio of FPs in evaporator and feed solutions). The activities of nitric acid and water were saturated at values of 0.01 and 0.43, respectively, after the CF reached 6. The simulation predicted decontamination factors DFs of 2×10⁵ and 8×10³ for Ru and Tc, respectively, for a typical evaporation conditions with an operational pressure of 6,700 Pa, and FPs of 0.02 to 1.4 M. The simulation results agreed with the verification experiment, which will be described in next paper, within a factor of 2 for the amount of gas-phase transferred Ru during evaporation. The factor for the amount of gas-phase transferred Tc was estimated as 5 from the measurement error in the gas-liquid equilibrium constant.