Solidification/Stabilization of Elemental Mercury Waste by Amalgamation

Conference · Mon Feb 24 04:00:00 EST 2003

OSTI ID:826236

Yim, S P; Ahn, B G; Lee, H J; Shon, J S; Chung, H; Kim, K J; Lee, C K

Experiments on solidification of elemental mercury waste were conducted by amalgamation with several metal powders such as copper, zinc, tin, brass and bronze. Unlike the previous studies which showed a dispersible nature after solidification, the waste forms were found to possess quite large compressive strengths in both copper and bronze amalgam forms. The durability was also confirmed by showing very minor changes of strength after 90 days of water immersion. Leachability from the amalgam forms is also shown to be low: measured mercury concentration in the leachate by the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) was well below the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limit. Long term leaching behavior by Accelerated Leach Test (ALT) has shown that the leaching process was dominated by diffusion and the effective diffusion coefficient was quite low (around 10-19 cm2/sec). The mercury vapor concentration from the amalgam forms were reduced to a 20% level of that for elemental mercury and to one-hundredth after 3 months.

• Research Organization: Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KR); Handong University (KR)
• Sponsoring Organization: none (US)
• OSTI ID: 826236
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BRASS
BRONZE
COPPER
DIFFUSION
LEACHATES
LEACHING
MERCURY
MERCURY ALLOYS
SOLIDIFICATION
TOXICITY
US EPA
WASTE FORMS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
ZINC