The PRISM concept
- Georgia Inst. of Tech., Atlanta, GA (United States). Constrution Research Center
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
- Plasma Technology Corp., Raleigh, NC (United States)
- Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
Contaminated soils and buried wastes represent one of the most widespread and costly remediation problems in the United States and other developed countries around the world. This concept of in situ remediation using a plasma arc torch should be directly applicable to many of the contaminated soil remediation needs described the DOE, EPA, and DoD. Plasma Remediation of In Situ Materials (PRISM) could provide a highly efficient, cost-effective, reliable and controllable technique to selectively melt and vitrify any contaminated/buried volume of soils, materials, or objects at any depth underground. If necessary, it could pinpoint underground objects such as buried drums for selective remediation. Plasma arc technology was developed over 30 years ago by NASA for the US space program to simulate reentry temperatures on heat shields. Only recently has this technology begun to emerge as a commercial tool in several industries such as steelmaking, metallurgy, precious metal recovery, and waste disposal. Conceptually, a plasma torch could be used on the ground surface or lowered to the bottom of a small diameter, cased borehole. By raising and operating the torch at progressively higher levels a column of contaminated material would be vitrified and converted into an environmentally safe, glassy residue, highly resistant to leaching. With proper borehole spacing the vitrified columns could be coalesced together to form a contiguous, homogeneous mass of vitrified material which is environmentally safe and highly resistant to leaching.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 10178856
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-941124-8; ON: DE94018133; TRN: 94:020984
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 33. Hanford symposium on health and the environment: symposium on in-situ remediation--scientific basis for current and future technologies,Richland, WA (United States),7-11 Nov 1994; Other Information: PBD: [1994]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
In-situ remediation and vitrification of contaminated soils, deposits and buried materials
In Situ Remediation Integrated Program: Evaluation and assessment of containment technology
Related Subjects
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
SOILS
REMEDIAL ACTION
PLASMA HEATING
LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
VITRIFICATION
ELECTRIC ARCS
054000
052002
052001
HEALTH AND SAFETY
WASTE DISPOSAL AND STORAGE
WASTE PROCESSING