NURES® – Technology for Radionuclide Removal

NURES® treats radioactive liquids with a higher selectivity and to a smaller waste volume compared to any competing organic resin or inorganic ion exchanger on the market.

Cost efficient
Cost Savings

A custom solution tailored to significantly reduce your interim and final storage volumes of radioactive waste

Hazardous waste and detoxification
Robust and Effective

High purification levels with many different liquid characteristics

Fuel source flexibility
Customisable

A tailored solution for your needs

Increased efficiency
100% Inorganic

Stable during interium storge and compatible to most solidification recipes

What is NURES®?

REMAINT nuclear outage concept
CsTreat®
REMAINT nuclear outage concept
SrTreat®
REMAINT nuclear outage concept
CoTreat®
REMAINT nuclear outage concept
SbTreat®

NURES® purifies your radioactive liquids

NURES® technology purifies your radioactive liquids efficiently with lower costs. It is based on patented, 100% inorganic, highly selective ion exchange (“IX”) materials. The Treat-series IX materials have been developed from a nuclear power plant operator’s perspective since the 1980s. NURES® technology is proven in the most challenging conditions at our customers’ installations, including the liquid treatment at the Fukushima Daiichi site where extremely stringent purification criteria have been applied. We thrive to deliver the best possible radionuclide purification technology to our customers with continuous R&D activities and product development.

NURES® Key Figures

100

NURES® customers worldwide

27

Countries where NURES® is in use

1M

Cubic meters of water purified so far

NURES® publications

Fukushima cesium and strontium removal with NURES®

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant: Treating with NURES®

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Download all NURES® Publications

NURES® Publications

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Liquid treatment from fuel element debris

Bradwell Magnox NPP, United Kingdom

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Antti Ketolainen

Senior Manager
Operating Plant and Waste Services
Contact NURES- and BORES- product team:
nures [at] fortum [dot] com

Our related products

LOCKIT®

LOCKIT® – Nuclear Waste Solid­i­fi­cation

Fortum’s waste solid­i­fi­cation technology (LOCKIT®) enables cost effective solutions for low- and inter­me­diate- level waste solid­i­fi­cation.

Read more

BORES®

BORES® – Liquid Waste Treatment

Customisable solutions for separation of boron from radioactive liquids.

Read more
Nuclear power

We offer services for the whole life-cycle of nuclear power plants

More about Nuclear Services

NURES® has been used around the world - See a list of selected references

JAERI, Japan (1997 – 1998)

70 m3 of reprocessing liquid with 7 GBq/l of Sr and 7 GBq/l of Cs purified to lower activity enabling cheaper further treatment.

Fukushima, Japan (2011 – 2012)

Cleaning of spent fuel pools.

Fukushima, Japan (2012 – present)

Cleaning of cooling water reverse osmosis reject. CsTreat® and SrTreat® are used in ALPS to reach a non-detectable level of Cs and Sr.

Paks NPP, Hungary (2003 – present)

Cs removal and boron recovery from evaporator concentrates.

Sellafield THORP, UK (2005 – 2007)

THORP Feed Pond decontamination with CoTreat®.

Dounreay, UK (2002 – present)

Cleaning of sodium coolant from PFR and DFR with CsTreat®.

Bradwell Magnox NPP, UK (2013– 2017)

Treatment of liquid from a Fuel Element Debris (FED) treatment system with CsTreat® and CoTreat®.

Callaway, USA (1996 – 1999)

3000 m3 of floor drain wastewater was purified with 250 litres of CsTreat®.

Savannah River, USA (1999 – 2000)

Demonstration to remove cesium from R-Reactor Disassembly Basin. 24 000 m3 was treated.

Loviisa, Finland (1991 – present)

1310 m3 of evaporator concentrates have been purified by 2009 with 232 litres of CsTreat®. Savings compared to cementation are over 50 million euros.

Atomflot, Russia (1996 - 1997)

Cs and Sr purification of liquids from nuclear ice breakers.

Paldiski, Estonia (1995)

Cleaning of 760 m3 of liquid waste in the Paldiski Naval Base (former Soviet Naval Training Centre) with only 12 litres of CsTreat®

NURES® Publications

The following NURES® Publications are free to download, but we would like to better serve you by getting the contact information of those interested in our products. Please fill the following form and you will be redirected to our downloads page. 

Available publications:

  • Tusa, Esko - Efficiency Of Fortum's CsTreat® And SrTreat® In Cesium And Strontium Removal In Fukushima Daiichi NPP, ENC2014, European Nuclear Conference, 11-14 May 2014, Marseille, France
  • Tusa, Esko - Harjula, Risto - Yarnell, Peter (2007) Fifteen Years of Operation with Inorganic Highly Selective Ion Exchange Materials. WM'07 Conference, February 25 - March 1, 2007, Tucson, AZ.
  • Tajiri, H - Mimori, K - Miyajima, K. - Uchikoshi, T. - Mizubayashi, H. Tusa, E. (2000) Experience of Test Operation for Removal of Fission Product Nuclides in TRU-Liquid Waste and Concentrated Nitric Acid Using Inorganic Ion Exchangers. WM'00 Conferenc
  • Harjula, Risto - Paajanen, Airi - Lehto, Jukka - Tusa, Esko and Standring, Paul (2003) Testing of CoTreat Inorganic Ion Exchange Media for the Removal of Co-60 from Thorp Pond Water. WM'03 Conference, February 23-27, 2003, Tuscon, AZ.
  • Lehto, Jukka - Brodkin, Leena - Harjula, Risto and Tusa, Esko (1999) Separation of Radioactive Strontium from Alkaline Nuclear Waste Solutions with the Highly Effective Ion Ex-changer SrTreat, Nuclear Technology, vol. 127 July 1999, pp. 81-87. 
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Data for the ion exchange materials: CsTreat, SrTreat, CoTreat and SbTreat

  CsTreat®​ CoTreat® SrTreat® SbTreat®
Removes Cesium (Cs-134, Cs-137) Radioactive Cobalt​​ Strontium Antimony (Sb-122, Sb-124, and Sb-125)
Can also be used for   corrosion products (e.g. Mn-54, Fe-59, Ni-63, Zn-65), transuraniums            (e.g. Pu-236)​ Pu, Zn Tc-99 (pertechnetate)
Not disturbing conditions High salt concentrations High salt concentrations High salt concentrations High salt concentrations
Most disturbing factors Potassium pH, colloids, Calcium Calcium, Magnesium Phosphate
Based on Ferrocyanide Titanium Oxide Titanium Oxide Zirconium Oxide
Inorganic Yes Yes Yes Yes
Stable Yes Yes Yes Yes
Format Solid granules Solid granules Solid granules Solid granules
Bulk density, kg/l 0.67 1 0.88 0.67
Grain size typically, mm 0.25 - 0.85 0.30 - 0.85 0.30 - 0.85 0.25 - 0.85
other size options, mm < 0.15 mm or 0.15 - 0.25 mm < 0.15 mm or 0.15 - 0.25 mm < 0.15 mm or 0.15 - 0.25 mm < 0.15 mm or 0.15 - 0.25 mm
Decontamination factor typically 1000-10000, highest achieved 8,000,000 10 - 2000 200-2000, highest achieved 165,000,000 20 - 1000
Capacity, BV and l/kg Depends on liquid composition, can be calculated from chemical parameters
Operating pH area 1-13 4-8 (optimal 5-7) ​>7 (optimal >10) 1-13 (optimal <8)
Max. operating temperature, °C 80 300 300 200
Suitable for both column or bed operations Yes Yes Yes Yes
Service flow rate typically, BV/h​ 10-20 10-20 10-20 10-20