Application of cryogenic grinding to achieve homogenization of transuranic wastes

Abstract

This paper describes work done at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in collaboration with the Department of Energy Rocky Flats Field Office (DOE/RFFO) and with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, Colorado. Researchers on this project have developed a method for cryogenic grinding of mixed wastes to homogenize and, thereby, to acquire a representative sample of the materials. There are approximately 220,000 waste drums owned by the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS)-50,000 at RFETS and 170,000 at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. The cost of sampling the heterogeneous distribution of waste in each drum is prohibitive. In an attempt to produce a homogeneous mixture of waste that would reduce greatly the cost of sampling, researchers at NIST and RFETS are developing a cryogenic grinder. The Los Alamos work herein described addresses the implementation issues of the task. The first issue was to ascertain whether samples of the {open_quotes}small particle{close_quotes} mixtures of materials present in the waste drums at RFETS were representative of actual drum contents. Second, it was necessary to determine at what temperature the grinding operation must be performed in order to minimize or to eliminate the release of volatile organic compounds present in the waste. Last, it was essential to evaluate any effect the liquid cryogen might have on the structural integrity and ventilation capacity of the glovebox system. Results of this study showed that representative samples could be and had been obtained, that some release of organics occurred below freezing because of sublimation, and that operation of the cryogenic grinding equipment inside the glovebox was feasible.