The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Mar. 18, 1997

Filed:

Aug. 23, 1995
Applicant:
Inventors:

Robert W Mouk, Westerville, OH (US);

Alan F Heyduk, Columbus, OH (US);

Albert E Abel, Powell, OH (US);

Assignee:
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G21F / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
588-1 ; 134-2 ; 134 16 ; 134 251 ; 134 26 ; 134 42 ; 209-5 ; 209 18 ; 976D / ;
Abstract

Soil including sand and clays contaminated with nuclear waste materials and/or ions of hazardous non-radioactive metals or metalloids are decontaminated by treating with anhydrous liquid ammonia alone or in combination with solvated electrons. Methods include removing ions of hazardous metals or metalloids by mixing with ammoniacal solutions to provide an ammoniacal liquid-containing product with coordination complexes. Methods also comprise concentrating contaminants, such as plutonium, uranium and thorium, for example, in the fines of soil and clay to yield residual soil products which are sufficiently free of contaminants to allow reclamation. Economics are improved over aqueous systems since ammonia can be recovered and recycled. By concentrating nuclear and nonnuclear wastes in soil fines space requirements ordinarily needed for storage of untreated soil and handling costs can be significantly reduced.


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