Investigation of Sr uptake by birnessite-type sorbents from seawater

Abstract Sorption of micro- and microamounts of Sr from seawater has been studied using granulated Na-birnessite. Distribution coefficients of 90Sr in the natural seawater are 0.8–1.2 9 103 ml g-1 , in the model seawater they are 1.6–1.8 9 103 ml g-1 . Application of Na-birnessite was shown to be prospective in sorption–desorption–regeneration regime. In dynamic sorption conditions, over 150 bed volumes of seawater can be purified till 5% breakthrough occurs at feed rate 10 BV h-1 . Na-birnessite can be used for 90Sr radionuclide removal from liquid radioactive wastes containing seawater.