Decontamination of steel by melt refining: A literature review
- Carnegie-Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
It has been reported that a large amount of metal waste is produced annually by nuclear fuel processing and nuclear power plants. These metal wastes are contaminated with radioactive elements, such as uranium and plutonium. Current Department of Energy guidelines require retrievable storage of all metallic wastes containing transuranic elements above a certain level. Because of high cost, it is important to develop an effective decontamination and volume reduction method for low level contaminated metals. It has been shown by some investigators that a melt refining technique can be used for the processing of the contaminated metal wastes. In this process, contaminated metal is melted wit a suitable flux. The radioactive elements are oxidized and transferred to a slag phase. In order to develop a commercial process it is important to have information on the thermodynamics and kinetics of the removal. Therefore, a literature search was carried out to evaluate the available information on the decontamination uranium and transuranic-contaminated plain steel, copper and stainless steel by melt a refining technique. Emphasis was given to the thermodynamics and kinetics of the removal. Data published in the literature indicate that it is possible to reduce the concentration of radioactive elements to a very low level by the melt refining method. 20 refs.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Carnegie-Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 441665
- Report Number(s):
- LA-SUB-94-35; ON: DE97003320; TRN: 97:005015
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: [1994]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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