Status and Strategy of the U.S. Commercial Waste Management Program. Consolidated Fuel Reprocessing Program

摘要

Management of airborne waste generally involves the following steps: recovery, treatment, interim storage, transportation, and disposal. The recovery (retention) of airborne radionuclides is generally well developed since the first-generation processes have been used for iodine and particulates for decades by the DOE nuclear materials production plants. Later-generation processes have been carried separately through the cold pilot-plant stage. However, the design and demonstration of a hot, integrated flowsheet for the recovery of all airborne species to the extent necessary to meet applicable regulations are still required. Treatment of the recovered airborne wastes is generally less-well developed. Tentatively preferred processes have been identified: iodine-barium iodate and/or silver zeolites in concrete with additives; krypton-implanted as ions in a metal alloy and encapsulated in concrete; carbon-barium carbonate in concrete with additives; particulates-encapsulation of HEPA filters in concrete; ruthenium-ruthenium traps encapsulated in concrete. The technology for interim storage and transportation appears to be straightforward engineering extensions of existing technology, assuming that the waste forms listed above are to be employed. Waste disposal concepts are the least well-developed aspect of airborne waste mangement technology. It appears that the long-lived materials such as exp 129 I, exp 14 C, and particulates will have to be emplaced in a geologic repository and that shorter-lived airborne waste may be acceptable in shallow-land burial grounds. The long-range goal of the program is to determine all of the steps necessary to manage airborne wastes. (ERA citation 08:038524)