Studies on the Reverse Osmosis Treatment of Uranyl Nitrate Solution

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Abstract
The aqueous effluent generated in uranium processing, particularly in the nuclear fuel fabrication step, contains mainly uranium nitrate. This requires treatment before discharge into the environment to meet stringent standards. This paper presents the performance of cellulose acetate membranes with regard to rejection of uranium under reverse osmotic conditions for feed concentrations up to 200 mg/L of uranium, which corresponds to the levels normally prevalent in the effluents. The use of additives like the disodium salt of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and sodium sulfate for the improvement of reverse osmosis performance of the above membranes was also investigated. In the light of the experimental results, the suitability of reverse osmosis for the decontamination of uranium effluents is discussed.