In support of a small column ion exchange (SCIX) process for the Savannah River Site waste processing program, transient and steady state two-dimensional heat transfer models have been constructed for columns loaded with cesium-saturated crystalline silicotitanate (CST) or spherical Resorcinol-Formaldehyde (RF) beads and 6 molar sodium tank waste supernate. Radiolytic decay of sorbed cesium results in heat generation within the columns. The models consider conductive heat transfer only with no convective cooling and no process flow within the columns (assumed column geometry: 27.375 in ID with a 6.625 in OD center-line cooling pipe). Heat transfer at the column walls was assumed to occur by natural convection cooling with 35 degrees C air. A number of modeling calculations were performed using this computational heat transfer approach. Minimal additional calculations were also conducted to predict temperature increases expected for salt solution processed through columns of various heights at the slowest expected operational flow rate of 5 gpm. Results for the bounding model with no process flow and no active cooling indicate that the time required to reach the boiling point of (approx.) 130 degrees C for a CST-salt solution mixture containing 257 Ci/liter of Cs-137 heat source (maximum expected loading for SCIX applications) at 35 degrees C initial temperature is about 6 days.
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