Volume reduction of low-level radioactive wastes

The Biology Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), located at the Y-12 site of the Oak Ridge Reservation, produces modest amounts of radioactive mixed (radioactive and hazardous) wastes which present unique disposal problems under current Federal (Dept. of Energy (DOE)), Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and State of Tennessee rules and regulations governing the disposal of these types of wastes. These wastes fall into five categories, as generated: (a) liquid (laboratory process) wastes, (b) dry (lab trash) wastes, (c) animal carcases. The liquid waste is considered to contain approx. = 90% of the total radioactivity of the wastes. The most feasible long-term method of dealing with these wastes, consists of four inter-related processes. These are (1) distillation of the liquid wastes to remove a volatile, slightly radioactive organic fraction (to be incinerated); (2) scintillation fluid (''cocktail'') recovery and component separation; (3) incineration (high temperature, high efficiency) of the relatively low activity dry waste, animal bedding, animal carcasses; and the slightly radioactive (3H and 14C) flammable components from the liquid and scintillation fluid wastes; and (4) cold chemical oxidation and solidification in cement of the aqueous waste fractions from distillation and scintillation fluid separation steps. This alternative provides for the elimination of all hazardous components with the minimum release of radioactivity into the environment. Only a small fraction of the original waste would be landfilled as either immobiled radioactive waste (low activity tritiated water in carbon-14 carbonate and other ''institutional'' radioisotopes or non-hazardous ash