Abstract
Electrolytic removal of plutonium and americium from stainless steel and uranium surfaces has been demonstrated. Preliminary experiments were performed on the electrochemically based decontamination of type 304L stainless steel in sodium nitrate solutions to better understand the metal removal effects of varying current density, pH, and nitrate concentration parameters. Material removal rates and changes in surface morphology under these varying conditions are reported. Experimental results indicate that an electropolishing step before contamination removes surface roughness, thereby simplifying later electrolytic decontamination. Sodium nitrate based electrolytic decontamination produced the most uniform stripping of material at low to intermediate pH and at sodium nitrate concentrations of 200 g L-1 and higher. Stirring was also observed to increase the uniformity of the stripping process.
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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Wedman, D.E., Martinez, H.E., Nelson, T.O. (1997). Electrolytic Decontamination of Conductive Materials for Hazardous Waste Management. 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_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5387-8_17
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