Airborne effluent control at fuel enrichment, conversion, and fabrication plants

Conference · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1976

OSTI ID:7345983

Mitchell, M E

Uranium conversion, enrichment, and fuel fabrication facilities generate gaseous wastes that must be treated prior to being discharged to the atmosphere. Since all three process and/or handle similar compounds, they also encounter similar gaseous waste disposal problems, the majority of which are treated in a similar manner. Ventilation exhausts from personnel areas and equipment off-gases that do not contain corrosive gases (such as HF) are usually passed through roughening and/or HEPA filters prior to release. Ventilation exhausts that contain larger quantities of particles, such as the conversion facilities' U/sub 3/O/sub 8/ sampling operation, are passed through bag filters or cyclone separators, while process off-gases containing corrosive materials are normally treated by sintered metal filters or scrubbers. The effectiveness of particle removal varies from about 90 percent for a scrubber alone to more than 99.9 percent for HEPA filters or a combination of the various filters and scrubbers. The removal of nitrogen compounds (N/sub 2/, HNO/sub 3/, NO/sub x/, and NH/sub 3/) is accomplished by scrubbers in the enrichment and fuel fabrication facilities. The conversion facility utilizes a nitric acid recovery facility for both pollution control and economic recovery of raw materials. Hydrogen removal from gaseous waste streams is generally achieved with burners. Three different systems are currently utilized by the conversion, enrichment, and fuel fabrication plants to remove gaseous fluorides from airborne effluents. The HF-rich streams, such as those emanating from the hydrofluorination and fluorine production operations of the conversion plant, are passed through condensers to recover aqueous hydrofluoric acid.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Tenn. (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 7345983
• Report Number(s): K-C-1241; CONF-760806-2; TRN: 76-018695
• Resource Relation: Conference: Meeting on controlling airborne effluents from fuel cycle plants, Sun Valley, ID, USA, 5 Aug 1976
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
FEED MATERIALS PLANTS
CHEMICAL EFFLUENTS
RADIOACTIVE EFFLUENTS
FUEL FABRICATION PLANTS
GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANTS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE FACILITIES
FILTERS
GASEOUS WASTES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
ISOTOPE SEPARATION PLANTS
MANAGEMENT
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
052001* - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Processing
050700 - Nuclear Fuels- Fuels Production & Properties
053000 - Nuclear Fuels- Environmental Aspects