Institute of Nuclear Energy Research

Da-Luh Lu

Ching-Tsuen Huang

Tsye-Shing Lee

Tzeng-Ming Liu

Jiing-Guang Tyen

This invention discloses a method for the co-solidification of low-level radioactive wet wastes of BWR nuclear power plants, including concentrate waste, spent ion exchange resins and sludge wastes etc., with very high volume efficiency. In this invention, for promoting the stability of the solidified waste, sodium sulfate in the concentrate solution is converted to sodium hydroxide and barium sulfate by reacting with barium hydroxide. The conversion product barium sulfate possessing high density and stability is insoluble and used as a fine aggregate material in the solidified waste. Sodium hydroxide is used to stabilize ion exchange resins and to form a highly water-durable solidified waste form with silicates and phosphates in the solidification agent mixture. The solidification agent used in this invention is a formulated powder mixture completely made from inorganic materials. Therefore, there is no aging problem of the solidified waste. In this invention, the waste loading of the solidified waste is highly increased due to the conversion of sodium sulfate and the co-solidification of wastes. Thus, the solidification volume efficiency of the present invention is about three times of the solidification of the waste separately.

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Chung Li, Taiwan

Da-Luh Lu