Fortum’s Know-How Used To Purify Radioactive Liquids In Fukushima

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Materials developed by Fortum to clean radioactive waste will be used in the upcoming months to treat the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant’s radioactive liquids in Japan.

Fortum is the key ion exchange media supplier to EnergySolutions LLC for a project to decontaminate water from the damaged Nuclear Power Plant at Fukushima. The radioactive liquid purification process used in the project will use ion exchange materials developed by Fortum. Fortum will supply thousands of kilos of ion exchange materials in granule form to EnergySolutions for the purification process. Fortum has worked closely with EnergySolutions who have been selected by Toshiba Corporation as the technology supplier for the Project.

Fortum has over 20 years of experience in treating waste containing radioactive impurities. Developed and registered by Fortum, CsTreat® and SrTreat®, the highly selective ion exchange media, will be used in the system to treat the Fukushima liquids which contain a lot of radioactive impurities.

Large volumes of radioactive liquids were generated, during efforts to stabilize the damaged reactors, following the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in March 2011, and Fortum’s products suit perfectly for purifying them. Since spring 2011, Fortum has offered assistance in the world’s biggest operation to purify radioactive liquids. Already prior to the agreement signed now, Fortum has supplied smaller commercial deliveries and test batches to Fukushima.

”For Fortum, safety is the number-one priority in nuclear power operations and in nuclear waste issues. For us, this has meant 30+ years of international networking and sharing know-how with others in the sector. The project being launched now is testimony to this. I am extremely proud that we can use Fortum’s expertise in solving Fukushima’s difficult nuclear waste problem,” said Matti Ruotsala, Executive Vice President, Power Division, Fortum.

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