Treatment of contaminated non-iron metals for clearance - 15361

Iron based metals and concrete make up most of the structures in a nuclear power plants and most other nuclear installations. During the last few decades, a lot of effort has been put into the treatment of steel in order to allow recycling of the metal and to reduce the volume for final disposal. In addition to the iron based metals, there are also other metals in significant amounts that can be treated for recycling and waste minimisation. Aluminium, lead, titanium, brass and copper have all been treated by Studsvik in the metals treatment facility in Sweden over the years. Some of these metals like lead and aluminium causes certain concerns (for reasons not related to their radioactivity) if they were to be disposed as radioactive waste. Other as copper and titanium has a high economic value if recycled outside the nuclear industry. Studsvik experience from treatment of non-iron metals is reported in this paper. (authors)