Grouting of the residual uranium waste in Fernald Silos
- Carter Technologies Co, Sugar Land, TX (United States)
- Fluor Fernald, Loveland, OH (United States)
At the Fernald site in Cincinnati, Ohio, huge concrete silos containing K-65 spent uranium ore were to be decommissioned and demolished as part of the decommissioning and restoration of the site. The K-65 waste in the silos was to be removed by sluicing with a low pressure water jet and placed in a new tank for the solidification processing. However the process was expected to leave at least a few inches of hard residual heel of waste on the floor and perhaps the walls of each silo. The contaminated concrete of the silos along with this waste heel represented a huge volume of material that would pose a hazard to workers, air quality, and groundwater during demolition. The heel material contained significant lead and radium as well as depleted uranium. The waste emitted a large amount of radon gas that was normally captured by a silo off-gas treatment system. Project plans called for the heel material to be mixed in place with a large volume of cement/flyash grout. This would chemically bind up the contaminants reducing the leaching potential of the material. The hardened grout would reduce the release of radon and dilute the concentration of radioactive contaminants allowing the grout to be disposed along with the contaminated concrete. The challenge was to develop an efficient method to mix the waste heel material with the grout without sending workers into the silo. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9 - 332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21290799
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-09-WM-07186; TRN: US10V0124038210
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM'07: 2007 Waste Management Symposium - Global Accomplishments in Environmental and Radioactive Waste Management: Education and Opportunity for the Next Generation of Waste Management Professionals, Tucson, AZ (United States), 25 Feb - 1 Mar 2007; Other Information: Country of input: France
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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