News in Press-centre

The researchers of Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) and the Institute of Chemistry, Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (FEB RAS), have developed a new technology for processing liquid radioactive waste containing seawater. The unique in the world sorbents and a prototype pilot plant, which is currently being testing at the shipyard in Bolshoy Kamen, were created under the joint project with the Far Eastern Zvezda Shipyard.

According to Ivan Tananaev, Director of Academic Department of Nuclear Technology, FEFU School of Natural Sciences (SNS), the accumulation of radioactive waste is inevitable in operation, repair, and disposal of nuclear-powered submarines and ships. The researchers have proposed a new technology to Zvezda Shipyard, which is based on the use of the unique sorption materials that can extract the most dangerous radionuclides from seawater: Cesium 137 and Strontium 90.

“The dangerous radionuclides are retrieved in the developed plant by using original granular sorbents,” says Ivan Tananaev. “Ultimately a large amount of high-salt liquid radioactive waste is converted into the treated water, and the matrices of the solidified sorbents with the extracted radionuclides shall be buried at a landfill.”

According to the researchers, subject to the successful dynamic testing the pilot plant is expected to be scaled up—the bigger in size and capacity prototype shall be created—that is able to cope effectively with the appropriate for the enterprise volumes of liquid radioactive waste processing.

It should be noted that the overall leadership of the project is managed by Oleg Shcheka, FEFU Deputy Vice President for Research and Innovation. Analysis of the existing sorption technologies, as well as the preparation of the scientific and technical documentation on plant design, was led by Valentine Avramenko, SNS Deputy Director, and coordinated by Denis Salanin, Director of the Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Research and Education Center, School of Engineering.

The research work is carried out under the grant allocated by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 218. The initiative aims at the cooperation of universities and enterprises to create high-tech industries. The implementation of the project with Zvezda Shipyard is scheduled to the end of 2018.