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Title: Development of a fluidized bed calcination process for aluminum nitrate wastes in a two-foot-square pilot plant calciner. Part I. Equipment development and initial process studies

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5827308· OSTI ID:5827308

A two-foot-square fluidized bed calciner was designed and operated to convert aqueous, highly radioactive wastes into granular solids. The calciner exceeded its designed feed capacity of calcining, at a bed temperature of 400/sup 0/C, 100 liters per hour of aluminum nitrate solution simulating wastes from the reprocessing of spent aluminum-uranium alloy reactor fuel. Heat was supplied to the calciner by circulating NaK with an electromagnetic pump, at temperatures up to 1400/sup 0/F, through a tubular heat exchanger placed directly in the fluidized bed of solids. The results of ten runs are presented and discussed. Equipment development progressed to the point where a continuous, trouble-free, operating period of 43 days was attained. Several properties of the alumina product were routinely measured, and some of the effects of the calciner operating variables on these properties were determined. The production of both amorphous and alpha crystalline material was found to be possible; the crystalline nature of the product had a profound effect on product properties and off-gas loading.

Research Organization:
Phillips Petroleum Co., Idaho Falls, ID (USA). Atomic Energy Div.
Sponsoring Organization:
US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)
DOE Contract Number:
AT(10-1)-205
OSTI ID:
5827308
Report Number(s):
IDO-14586
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English