Effluent treatment from hot laundry of Instalacao Nuclear de Agua Pressurizada (INAP), by chemical precipitation processes and reverse osmosis

Among the many types of radioactive effluents which will be generated at the Instalacao Nuclear de Agua Pressurizada (INAP), that is in development by the Centro Tecnologico da Marinha em Sao Paulo (CTMSP), there is a specific one, arising from the laundry of this facility. Besides the presence of traces of radioactive materials in this effluent, it is present in its composition a significant quantify of detergent, difficulting its treatment by the techniques usually employed in the effluents treatment systems of nuclear facilities and consequently its release to the environment. In this work, a synthetic solution was prepared based on data available in literature and project documentation of the laundry of INAP. It was studied the treatment of this effluent by chemical precipitation with calcium oxide and reverse osmosis treatment. The results got during the treatment assays showed that the used processes are efficient to treat the effluent that will be generated at the laundry of INAP, obtaining a purified stream, that represents 90% of the effluent fed at the treatment system, with a higher quality than the water used for industrial processes, becoming its reutilisation in the water used for industrial processes, becoming its reutilisation in the INAP feasible, minimizing any negative impact to the environment. (author)