Microwave vitrification - the development of a full-scale inactive plant

The full scale evaporation stage of a Microwave Vitrification plant was developed to a point where the plant could be operated for up to three hours and at feedrates of up to thirty litres per hour of HAL simulant. For further progress to be achieved the microwave applicator would have to be redesigned to achieve more uniform power absorption. The microwave evaporation stage used a process tube of 226mm diameter and of 1m working length between off-gas outlet and dried plug discharge. Experiments with static plugs showed that a fibre glass plug could be used in the evaporation of many times its own weight of feedstock. Subsequent work with a moving train of plugs confirmed that plug movement through a full-scale plant was practical. (author)