Recommendations of treatment technologies for radioactively contaminated lead at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory

Technical Report · Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:7310013

Neupauer, R M; Zukauskas, J F

Approximately one million pounds of radioactively contaminated lead are currently stored at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) and must be treated according to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. This excess lead exists in various forms, including brick, sheet, shot, wool, blankets, steel-jacketed casks, scrap, and miscellaneous solids. Several lead treatment technologies were evaluated based on effectiveness, applicability, feasibility, availability of equipment and materials, health and safety, generation of secondary waste streams, cost, and flexibility. Emphasis is given in this report to those treatment technologies that yield recyclable lead products. Methods that treat lead for storage and disposal were also investigated. Specific treatment technologies for decontaminating the excess lead at the INEL are recommended. The proposed treatment for lead brick, sheet, shot, blankets, and scrap is a series of surface decontamination techniques followed by melt-refining, if necessary. The recommended series of treatments for lead casks begins with removing and macroencapsulating the steel jackets, followed by size reducing and melt-refining the lead. Macroencapsulation is the proposed treatment for miscellaneous lead solids. Recycling lead that has been successfully decontaminated and macroencapsulating or stabilizing the treatment residuals is also recommended.

• Research Organization: EG and G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-76ID01570
• OSTI ID: 7310013
• Report Number(s): EGG-WM-10146; ON: DE92017992
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ENCAPSULATION
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
LEAD
DECONTAMINATION
PYROCHEMICAL REPROCESSING
AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
CHEMICAL PROPERTIES
EMISSION
IDAHO NATIONAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOISOTOPES
REGULATIONS
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
CLEANING
CONTROL
ELEMENTS
EVALUATION
ISOTOPES
MATERIALS
METALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
POLLUTION CONTROL
REPROCESSING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
052001* - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Processing
360104 - Metals & Alloys- Physical Properties
540130 - Environment
Atmospheric- Radioactive Materials Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)