Research advances in nuclear wastewater treatment using conventional and hybrid technologies: Towards sustainable wastewater reuse and recovery

With the widespread implementation of nuclear energy, radioactive wastewater management is increasingly gaining research interest. As radioactive waste piles up, from nuclear applications among other industries, growing concerns on its impact on human health and the environment arise. This review comprehensively discusses the sources, classes, and occurrence of radionuclides in nuclear wastewater. An understanding of the nature of radioactive wastewater is vital for the selection of an appropriate management approach. Advances in conventional and hybrid technologies for the treatment of nuclear wastewater are also extensively reviewed and evaluated. Our review shows that adsorption and membranes are the most mature technologies in comparison with other chemical, biological, physical, and electrochemical processes. In fact, the combination of these techniques, in the form of adsorptive membranes, has also shown highly promising results as hybrid technologies. Lastly, this review highlights the overseen benefit of recovering valuable radionuclides from nuclear wastewater, which has not been addressed yet.