Mercury Contamination - Amalgamate (contract with NFS and ADA): Demonstration of DeHg^SM Process

Technical Report · Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1246964· OSTI ID:1246964

Through efforts led by the Mixed Waste Focus Area (MWFA) and its Mercury Working Group (HgWG), the inventory of bulk elemental mercury contaminated with radionuclides stored at various U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites is thought to be approximately 16 m³ (Conley et al. 1998). At least 19 different DOE sites have this type of mixed low-level waste in their storage facilities. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) specifies amalgamation as the treatment method for radioactively contaminated elemental mercury. Although the chemistry of amalgamation is well known, the practical engineering of a sizable amalgamation process has not been tested (Tyson 1993). To eliminate the existing DOE inventory in a reasonable timeframe, scalable equipment is needed that can produce waste forms that meet the EPA definition of amalgamation, produce waste forms that pass the EPA Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) limit of 0.20 mg/L, limit mercury vapor concentrations during processing to below the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) 8-h worker exposure limit (50 μg/m³) for mercury, and perform the above economically.

• Research Organization: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM), Washington, DC (United States). Office of Science and Technology
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
• OSTI ID: 1246964
• Report Number(s): DOE/EM-0471
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES