Westinghouse Electric Corporation

C P Keegan

Edward Jean Lahoda

David C Grant

A method for segregating fines from the clean coarse fraction of the soil, preparing the contaminated fines for subsequent processing, and then separating the contaminants from the clean fines. The process produces a small, highly concentrated contaminanth fraction and a large fraction of clean soil. Metals, metallic compounds, and/or radioactive contaminants are removed from the fine fraction using either gravity separation, multistage gravity separation, a centrifugal jig, regular magnetic or paramagnetic separation using a high gradient magnetic separator, and/or a superconducting separator. Preparation of the fines requires selective segregation of the targeted particles size range and the removal of interfering soil fractions, and vegetation such as root hairs. This preparation is accomplished by a combination of attrition scrubbing, countercurrent jigging, and screening.

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South Huntington Twp., PA, United States of America

C P Keegan