Decontamination of radioactively contaminated liquids

Patent · Tue Jul 21 04:00:00 EDT 1987

OSTI ID:6271388

Robertson, C E

A method is described of decontaminating mixtures of radioactively contaminated water and radioactively contaminated water-immiscible organic liquids to produce a decontaminated organic liquid which can be disposed of in a conventional manner, the method comprising: (a) separating a discontinuous mixture of radioactively contaminated water and a radioactively contaminated water-immiscible organic liquid in which the organic liquid comprises a continuous phase into a waste water fraction carrying metal radionuclides and an organic liquid fraction carrying metal radionuclides; (b) decontaminating the waste water fraction; (c) mixing the radioactively contaminated organic liquid fraction with a sufficient amount of an aqueous solution of a water-soluble chelating agent until water-soluble metal-chelate complexes form between the chelating agent and substantially all of the metal radionuclides carried by the organic liquid fraction; (d) separating the aqueous solution from the organic liquid fraction removing the water-soluble metal-chelate complexes containing substantially all of the radionuclides from the organic liquid fraction, making the organic liquid substantially free of radionuclides and safely disposable by conventional methods; and (e) decontaminating the aqueous solution.

• Assignee: Carolina Power and Light Co., Raleigh, NC
• Patent Number(s): US 4681705
• OSTI ID: 6271388
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

052001* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Processing
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS
CHELATING AGENTS
CLEANING
DECONTAMINATION
DISPERSIONS
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
ISOTOPES
LIQUID WASTES
MATERIALS
MIXING
MIXTURES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOISOTOPES
SOLUBILITY
SOLUTIONS
WASTE WATER
WASTES
WATER