Method of melt-decontaminating alumium contaminated with radioactivity

Purpose: To enable optimum deontamination for radioactive-contaminated aluminum by further improving the decontaminating effect of the slag agent added to radioactive contaminated materials. Method: The slag agent is mainly composed of chloride type slags having a high reactivity for mainly incorporating uranium compounds and easily reacting near the melting point of aluminum and incorporated with fluorides for weakening the deliquescent characteristic to the chloride materials. Further, those slag agents are selected which can be treated at a low temperature in order to prevent the uranium compounds once incorporated into the slags from re-melting into the molten aluminum. Typically, a slag agent comprising 14 LiF, 76 KCl - 10 BaCl2 is preferred. The basicity of the slag agent ranges from 0.5 to 2 and the melting point is 700 deg C. The melting decontaminating efficiency for the radioactive-contaminated aluminum can thus be improved. (Horiuchi, T.)