Decontamination and melting of low level waste, a complete environmental package

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:220959

Clements, D W

Within the Capenhurst Diffusion Plant Decommissioning Project, British Nuclear Fuels plc aimed to minimize land burial and environmental impact, and maximize recycling of materials. The techniques used, now fully proven, are available to treat low level nuclear wastes arising from other decommissioning activities throughout the world. The Capenhurst Diffusion Plant originally produced highly enriched uranium for defense purposes, and was later modified for civil use. The Decommissioning Project has yielded over 160,000 t of surface contaminated materials, 99.5% of which will have been recycled for unrestricted re-use by completion in 1995. The main techniques described -- dismantling, size reduction, decontamination, melting and encapsulation -- are now available for use singly or in different combinations to tackle waste arisings with varied nuclide inventories in the most environmentally effective way. Practical experience is reviewed from the aspects of cost and cost reduction, safety, and environmental factors, including the influence of free release limits, and measurement of very low activity levels. Particular attention is given to melting radioactively contaminated metals, comparing the Capenhurst facility with those elsewhere and emphasizing the importance of preliminary decontamination of the feedstock.

• OSTI ID: 220959
• Report Number(s): CONF-950917--; ISBN 0-7918-1219-7
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
CUTTING
DECOMMISSIONING
ECONOMICS
ENCAPSULATION
GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANTS
LIQUID WASTES
LOW-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
MELTING
RADIATION MONITORING
RADIATION PROTECTION
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
RECYCLING
SCRAP METALS
SOLID WASTES
UNITED KINGDOM