Two ion-exchangers, the first is organic in nature and the other is inorganic named as resorcinol-formaldehyde (R-F) and zirconyl-molybdopyrophosphate (ZMPP) were synthesized and applied to decontaminate some fission radionuclides from radioactive waste streams. The distribution coefficients of the studied radionuclides for the two ion-exchanges at varying pH conditions are evaluated and the data showed that the selectivity sequence of resorcinol-formaldehyde for the studied cations is Cs+ > Co2+ > Eu3+ > Zn2+ which is the same sequence of zirconyl-molybdopyrophosphate while as the Xray diffraction characterization showed that resorcinol-formaldehyde resin is an amorphous material but zirconyl-molybdopyrophosphate is a semicrystalline one and both of resorcinol-formaldehyde and zirconyl-molybdopyrophosphate are considered as promising materials specially for the decontamination of cesium from radioactive waste solutions. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.