Patent Number: 047327057
Section: claims

1. In a method of packaging radioactive anion and/or cation exchange resin particles for shipment or storage wherein the resin particles are added to a cement mixture so as to form a cement matrix and the cement matrix is then allowed to solidify, the improvement comprising adding a chemically affecting additive to said resin particles and/or heating said resin particles prior to or during the solidification of said cement matrix to reduce their swelling factor to below 1.7, said swelling factor representing the quotient of the settled volume of said resin particles in a water-moistened, swelled state and the settled volume of said resin particles in a dry state, thus reducing the swelling and shrinking properties of said resin particles to such an extent that an increased amount of said resin particles can be added to said cement mixture per unit volume without reducing the water resistance of the solidified cement matrix to an unacceptable level. 2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said improvement comprises adding a chemically affecting additive to said resin particles. 3. A method according to claim 2, wherein said chemically affecting additive treats anion resin particles and consists of inorganic or organic anions or organic anion-active compounds. 4. A method according to claim 2, wherein said chemically affecting additive treats cation resin particles and consists of inorganic or organic cations or organic cation-active compounds. 5. A method according to claim 2, wherein said chemically affecting additive treats both anion and cation resin particles and is a compound which includes both anions and cations. 6. A method according to claim 2, wherein said chemically affecting additive contains organic or inorganic groups which can be cross linked with each other or with at least a portion of said resin particles. 7. A method according to claim 2, wherein said chemically affecting additive is selected from the group consisting of inorganic and organic mono and polysulfides, mono and polyfunctional carboxylic acids, their salts and their derivatives, sulphuric acid monoester, sulphonates and phosphoric acid mono and diesters. 8. A method according to claim 2, wherein said chemically affecting additive is selected from the group consisting of primary, secondary, tertiary and quartenary basic amines, which may also contain two or more amino groups, basic organic phosphonium compounds, basic organic sulphonium compounds, barium.sup.++ and iron.sup.++ compounds. 9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the improvement comprises heating said resin particles to between 50.degree. C. and 250.degree. C. 10. A method according to claim 9, including the step of passing a gas around said heated resin particles in order to remove volatile decay products emanating therefrom.