Overview of advanced technologies for stabilization of [sup 238]Pu-contaminated waste

Abstract

. DISCLAIMERThis report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any infomation, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recornmendidion. or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. AbstractThis paper presents an overview of potential technologies for stabilization of usPu-contaminated waste. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has processed 238Pu02 fuel into heat sources for space and terrestrial uses for the past several decades. The 88-year half-life of usPu and thermal power of approximately 0.6 watts/gram make this isotope ideal for missions requiring many years of dependable service in inaccessible locations. However, the same characteristic which makes usPu attractive for heat source applications, the high Curie content (17 Ci/gram versus 0.06 Ci/gram for 239Pu), makes disposal of usPu-contaminated waste difficult. Specifically, the thermal load limit on drums destined for transport to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), 0.23 gram per drum for combustible waste, is impossible to meet for nearly all 238Pu-contaminated glovebox waste. Use of advanced waste treatment technologies including Molten Salt Oxidation (MSO) and aqueous chemical separation will eliminate the combustible matrix from 238Pu-contaminated waste and recover kilogram quantities of 238Pu02 from the waste stream. A conceptual design of these advanced waste treatment technologies will be presented.

Scientific and Engineering Literature Mini Review of Molten Salt Oxidation for Radioactive Waste Treatment and Organic Compound Gasification as well as Spent Salt Treatment

“…MSO and aqueous chemical separation were examined at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to process combustible waste containing plutonium-238 to recover the plutonium-238 from the waste stream and allow licensed disposal of the residual waste [36,39]; a conceptual design of the waste treatment technology is described in this paper.…”