Abstract
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is defining decontamination and decommissidning (D&D) obligations at its sites (1). Current D&D activities are generally labor in-te sive, use chemical reagents that are difficult to treat, and may expose workers to radioactive and hazardous chemicals (1). Therefore, new technologies are desired that minimize waste, allow much of the decommissioned materials to be reused rather than disposed of as waste, and produce wastes that will meet disposal criteria (1).
The O’Brien & Gere Companies tested a scouring decontamination system on concrete and steel surfaces contaminated with radioactive and hazardous wastes under the sponsorship of Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc. (MMES) at DOE’s K-25 former gaseous diffusion plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This former gaseous diffusion plant separated uranium-235 from uranium ore for use in atomic weapons and commercial reactors. The scouring system that O’Brien & Gere Companies developed removes fixed radioactive and hazardous surface contamination, while leaving the surface intact. Blasting residuals are dissolved and treated using physical/chemical processes.
Bench-and pilot-scale testing of the soda blasting system was conducted between December 1993 and September 1994 on surfaces contaminated with uranium, technetium, heavy metals, and PCBs. Areas of concrete and metal surfaces were blasted. Blasting re-siduals were dissolved in tap water and treated for radioactive, hazardous, and organo-chlorine constituents. The treatment system comprised pH adjustment, aeration, solids settling, filtration, carbon adsorption, and ion exchange. This system produced treated water and residual solid waste.
Testing demonstrated that the system is capable of removing greater than 95% of radioactive and PCB surface contamination to below DOE’s unrestricted use release limits; aqueous radionuclides, heavy metals, and PCBs were below DOE and USEPA treatment objectives after blasting residuals treatment. Waste residuals volume was decreased by 71%. Preliminary analyses suggest that this soda blasting/waste residuals treatment system provides significant waste volume reduction and is more economical than surface decontamination techniques that are commercially available or under development.
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Grieco, S.A., Neubauer, E.D., Rhea, J.R. (1997). Removal and Treatment of Radioactive, Organochlorine, and Heavy Metal Contaminants From Solid Surfaces. In: Tedder, D.W., Pohland, F.G. (eds) Emerging Technologies in Hazardous Waste Management 7. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5387-8_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5387-8_16
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