Removal of Radioactive Effluent Waste from
Uranium Enrichments Plants
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In an effort to
reduce greenhouse emissions many nations and
multi-national corporations are once again focusing
on the development of safe radioactive sources for
energy generation. After a hiatus of some 20 years
commercial nuclear power plants are being developed
globally to satisfy increasing global energy
demands.
Whether for
generation of electrical power or in the production
of fission material there is a dire need to enable
cost efficient and effective cleanup of nuclear
generated waste. Effective chemical adsorption of
effluent waste using specially designed activated
alumina successfully binds and disposes of many
radioactive laden materials. In the processing of
radioactive chemicals, enrichment methodology leads
to the contamination of many heavy metals. Included
in these are molybdenum, vanadium, radium, thorium
and uranium. Cleaning up this radioactive waste has
become an environmental nightmare.
Indeed, the
greatest use of stimulus money to jump start
environmental cleanup and create new jobs has been
the issuance of stimulus funds through the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act by the Department of
Energy. Included in the first tranche of $ 6 billion
USD contracts have been awarded for $775 million to
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, $1.6 billion to
Hanford Operations in Richland, Washington, $ 1.6
billion for Savannah River, South Carolina, and $468
for Idaho National Laboratory. Some of this cleanup
stems from nuclear projects which go back to World
War II military needs. It is anticipated that it
will take until 2040 to complete the uranium cleanup
at our national facilities at a cost of $ 40
billion.
The projects are
being managed by the Department of Energy Office of
Environmental Management, which is responsible for
the risk reduction and cleanup of the environmental
impact from the nuclear weapons program.
The Department of
Energy Office of Oversight has identified improper
disposal of hazardous and radioactive materials on
and off site and the release of contaminated water
into streams and drainage ditches. Radioactive waste
from uranium enrichment plants are governed by two
federal environmental statutes-the Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability
Act of 1980, as amended, and the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, as amended.
These statutes provide broad federal authority to
respond directly to releases or threatened releases
of hazardous substances that may endanger public
health or the environment and to regulate the safe
management and disposal of hazardous and other solid
wastes.
The cleanup of
uranium enrichment sites includes the following
sites:
-
Groundwater
– billions of gallons of groundwater are
contaminated with radioactive and hazardous
materials
-
Surface
water – a principal source of this
contamination is rain runoff from the thousands
of tons of contaminated scrap metal located at
each of the enrichment sites
-
Surface
soils – both on and off site soils and
sediments are contaminated by water runoff,
spills and buried waste
-
Legacy waste
-
DOE material
storage areas
-
Burial
grounds – containing barrels of chemicals
with low levels of radioactivity and hazardous
chemicals
Removal of
radioactive containing heavy metals at uranium
enrichment sites may be achieved through the usage
of activated alumina. Spherules of activated alumina
with defined pore sizes adsorb heavy metals from
effluent discharge and provide the vehicle for
binding to these radioactive materials. Clean up of
this radioactive effluent is a final polishing step
in the process of decontamination in order to allow
the environment to once again become “safe”.
THINK ALUMINA -- THINK DYNAMIC
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