Gns Gesellschaft Fur Nuklear-service Mbh

Rheinisch-westfalisches Elektrizitatswerk Ag

Rheinisch-westfalisches Elektrizitatswerk

Jurgen Fischer

Henning Baatz

Dieter Rittscher

Rainer Ambros

Norbert Brenner

Gottfried Paffrath

Henrich J Schroeder

Radioactive waste water containing boric acid is concentrated in an evaporator to which an alkali is added to maintain a substantially neutral pH. The boric acid is sedimented out by cooling the solution and an acid is added to the latter to increase the solids recovery by lowering the pH. The solid sediment is vacuum distilled to yield a moist powder.

Method of treating radioactive waste water

A method of and an apparatus for the treatment of radioactive waste water from a nuclear electricity-generating power plant. The radioactive waste water containing soluble solids, usually boric acid, is concentrated by evaporation according to the invention to a solids concentration above that which will form a saturated solution at room temperature, whereupon the resulting concentrate is introduced into a storage vessel and cooled therein to room temperature. Solids precipitate and sediment in this vessel and water is decanted from the sediment and recycled to the evaporator where the process is repeated. The process allows the amount of waste in terms of the original material treated which must be stored for a given prolonged period, say between one half and three quarters of a year, for radioactive decay prior to packaging of the waste to be significantly reduced by comparison with earlier systems.

Method of and apparatus for the treatment of radioactive waste water

A container for the transport, storage and disposal of radioactive wastes or other materials, such as irradiated fuel elements of a nuclear reactor capable of neutron emission, which comprises a cast receptacle, e.g. of cast iron, a cover and, in passages spaced apart in the cast wall of the vessel, a neutron moderating or absorbing material. According to the invention, the passages are of circular cross section with a spacing at least equal to twice the diameter, and the total cross-sectional area of the passages in any plane transversely through the vessel corresponds to the cross section in the same plane of a continuous theoretical layer disposed along the periphery of a vessel of corresponding thickness and size or is greater than the area of the theoretical layer in this plane in so far as neutron absorption or moderation effect is concerned. The moderator passages thus provide a total volume which can correspond to the volume of the theoretical layer applied externally of the wall of the vessel and for a given moderator material will have the same moderation or absorption effect.

Transport and storage vessel for radioactive materials

A transport and storage vessel for radioactive materials, especially irradiated nuclear-reactor fuel elements, comprises a one-piece hollow body having lateral walls and a base formed unitarily with one another and open at an upper end which is provided with a removable cover. The walls of the body have an outer layer, an intermediate layer and an inner layer, the outer and intermediate layers being cast unitarily from a carbon-containing ferrous metal or a copper alloy while the intermediate layer consists of a cast matrix phase in which heavy metal particles having a melting point above 800.degree. C. are embedded to absorb radiation. The inner layer can be a lining of stainless steel which surrounds the chamber receiving the radioactive material.

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Essen, Germany

Jurgen Fischer