Early this summer on 27.05.2015, Esko Tusa was granted the Finnish Engineering Award for his persistent and far seeing work on NURES® (Nuclide Removal Solutions) [2]. Why was it worth the award and why only 35 years after the innovation? The answer is that the world has changed and become more environmentally conscious. The invention removes radioactive contaminants from water, at thousand times the efficiency of its most competitors. When it was developed during the 1980s, it was made with cost efficiency in mind for Loviisa Nuclear Plant. At the time, Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents had yet to happen. Today, deployed NURES® units are used to purify 1800 cubic meters of contaminated wastewater daily [7] at Fukushima and elsewhere, with approximately 60 users [1]. The system is based on ion-exchange and one kilogram of the ion exchange mass can process hundreds of tons of water, leaving only one kilogram of solid radioactive waste behind. The full system consists of three ion-exchange beds, separate ones for Cesium, Strontium and Cobolt and it can be combined with regular methods, such as active carbon filtering, mechanical filtering etc. Despite its initial narrow focus of handling contaminated water at Loviisa NPP more efficiently, the sustained development past the initial deployment has let the innovation evolve into something that can be used or modified to suit any task where decontaminating water is needed. For example, mobile units, see figure 1, were used to purify primary circuit waters of nuclear-powered ice breakers in Murmansk [8]. It is this long-term development that created a method of decontaminating water to potable levels in almost any circumstance that granted Tusa the Finnish Engineering Award for his lifework. It should be noted that other contaminated substances can also be purified in this matter, assuming they are water soluble. To not sound like a broken marketing record, it should be highlighted that Fukushima still sadly has an issue of stored radioactive water in the form of Tritium which is not covered by the ALS system in place [3]. NURES® and the picture provided are property of Fortum Corporation. Usage based on the terms presented on the legal notice for press releases and other documents for public use on Fortum Ltd website [6]. Sources accessed on 6th of October, 2015:
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May 2019
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