Macroencapsulation development at Pantex

The Pantex Plant is developing an innovative skid-mounted macroencapsulation technology (called a mobile treatment unit, MTU) that will economically dispose low-level radioactive mixed waste debris. Pantex's macroencapuslation technology spin-welds a polyethylene top onto a polyethylene receiver to form a jacket that encapsulates a fifty-five (55) gallon steel drum of compacted low-level radioactive and mixed waste debris. The annulus formed by the fifty-five gallon drum and the polyethylene jacket is filled with a material (either foam or grout) to eliminate voids in the final waste form. The US EPA verified that the use of a polyethylene jacket constitutes macroencapsulation in a letter to Chemical Waste Management, Inc., dated September 19, 1995. The EPA letter stipulated that this treatment technology should not be used for D008, radioactive lead solids, and that the final waste form should be structurally sound and resistant to degradation