An experimental investigation of the thermal/fluid properties of the NAC product slurry

Le résumé fourni par la source

As regulation of the waste decontamination process becomes increasingly restrictive, the safe storage of liquid nuclear waste is one of the major challenges worldwide. Over the past 50 years, more than 242,700 tons of low-level radioactive waste (LLW) has been generated at various U.S. weapons facilities. This LLW is temporarily stored at U.S. Department of Energy facilities such as the single-shell tanks at the Hanford site, the Savannah River site, the Melton Valley storage tanks at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Pad A Waste site at Idaho Falls. The characteristics of this sodium nitrate-based waste, in addition to the levels of radioactivity, are as follows: pH, either < 1 or > 12, with a total salt content of > 5 M, and a sodium content of > 1.5 M. Radioactive waste in the liquid state poses a great threat due to the potential for seeping into groundwater supplies. Therefore, it must be immobilized before final disposal. Currently, the most common immobilized method for LLW is the use of cement-based grout. Unfortunately, radioactive leaching is a major obstacle for this technology since the nitrate anion is very difficult to immobilize, especially in the relatively porous cement-based grout.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.