A analysis of cementation technology for liquid radioactive-waste in PWR NPPs

Cementation is one of the most popular solidification technology for the low-and-intermediate level liquid radioactive waste. It has been applied in all of domestic PWR NPPs. The process characteristics and operation of the cementations in the different NPPs are introduced,and the advantage and disadvantage of the cementation are analyzed in this paper. A drum and a cask are compared as a package of the solidified waste, the drum can decrease over 50% final volume of the waste, furthermore the cost for manufacture and transportation for this drum is more cheaper than the cask, but an additional shielding may be necessary for the waste with higher level radioactivity that is packed in drum. More waste can be contained if an appropriate in-drum mixer is used while secondary waste will be unavoidable if the out-drum mixing is adopted. A carriage can make it easier to decontaminate on the surface of equipment and on the floor, furthermore the carriage is more economical than a roller conveyor in manufacture and maintenance. The cementation recipe for the waste should be optimized and additive material should be as less as possible to increase the containing rate of the waste. (authors)