Filtration of Oak Ridge National Laboratory simulated liquid low-level waste

Abstract

A method for disposal of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's (ORNL's) liquid low-level radioactive waste (LLLW) is being developed in which the material will be solidified in cement and stored in an aboveground engineered storage facility. The acceptability of the final waste form rests in part on the presence or absence of transuranic isotopes. Filtration methods to remove transuranic isotopes from the bulk liquid stored in the Melton Valley Storage Tanks (MVST) were investigated in this study. Initial batch studies using waste from MVST indicate that {gt}99.9{percent} of the transuranic isotopes can be removed from the bulk liquid by simple filtration. Bench-scale studies with a nonradioactive surrogate waste indicate that {gt}99.5{percent} of the suspended solids can be removed from the bulk liquid via inertial crossflow filtration. 4 refs., 3 figs., 11 tabs.