Veolia Nuclear Solutions has completed a technology demonstration for disposal of radioactive contaminated reactive metal waste.
The company demonstrated the GeoMelt In-Container Vitrification process under contract to the Energy Department’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL), according to a Veolia press release. The company carried out the demonstration melts in August and September of this year at a test site in Richland, Wash.
Veolia’s approach “chemically converts the reactive metals to an inert oxide while also immobilizing radionuclides in a vitrified waste form with durability equal to or better than vitrified nuclear fuel reprocessing wastes,” the press release says.
INL management contractor Battelle Energy Alliance is considering Veolia’s GeoMelt system for conversion of reactive metal wastes now stored at the lab. Treatment is necessary to “comply with disposal restrictions,” according to the press release.
A follow-up demonstration is being planned. “The details of demonstrations in 2017 are still being discussed with Battelle Energy Alliance,” Michael Crittenden, a spokesman for Veolia, said by email. “The 2016 demonstrations validated the treatment (deactivation) of sodium metal using the GeoMelt ICV process with various configurations. The planned optimization demonstrations for 2017, are focused on maximizing the quantity of sodium that can be efficiently treated in each melt.”
The reactive metals processed in the demonstrations are separate from the roughly 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing waste stored underground at the Idaho site, Veolia confirmed. That material is to be processed by the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit (IWTU), which is substantially complete but has yet to function properly.
