Disposal of radioactive graphite without contaminating environment - by pulverising, mixing with water and burning, then purifying combustion gases and recycling unburnt solids

摘要

Graphite pieces are crushed and powdered in two stages (1,2) to less than 200 microns particle size, then mixed with water and emulsifying and wetting agents to form a suspension (3). Obtd. suspension is pumped through a heater (E) to a two-stage burner (9,10) and the resulting combustion gases are purified before release to the environment, by passing through cylone(s) (12), gas-washing system (14, 15) and absolute filter (16). Solids recovered from stages (12) and (15) are recycled to mixer (3). Gases may be cooled in heat exchanger (13) before the washing stage, to recover some combustion heat. Alternatively, the gases are cooled by finely sprayed water. In either case gases are reheated to 80 deg.C before the final filtration. USE/ADVANTAGE - Disposal of graphite from nuclear reactors. Graphite is completely burned without contaminating environment.