[en] Forecast of actinides wastes increase for the next 20 years shows the need for minimizing losses, volume reduction, reprocessing and geologic disposal of alpha wastes

[en] Revision 0 of this UDQE addressed the proposal to place Engineered Trench #3 (ET#3) in the footprint designated for Slit Trench #12 (ST#12) and operate using ST#12 disposal limits. Similarly, Revision 1 evaluates whether ET#4 can be located in and operated to Slit Trench #13 (ST#13) disposal limits. Both evaluations conclude that the proposed operations result in an acceptably small risk of exceeding a SOF of 1.0 and approve these actions from a performance assessment (PA) perspective. Because ET#3 will be placed in the location previously designated for ST#12, Solid Waste Management (SWM) requested that the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) determine if the ST#12 limits could be employed as surrogate disposal limits for ET#3 operations. SRNL documented in this Unreviewed Disposal Question Evaluation (UDQE) that the use of ST#12 limits as surrogates for the new ET#3 disposal unit will provide reasonable assurance that Department of Energy (DOE) 435.1 performance objectives and measures (USDOE, 1999) will be protected. Therefore, new ET#3 inventory limits as determined by a Special Analysis (SA) are not required.

[en] Mineral coal bottom ash exerts a great impact on the environment due to the presence of heavy metals in its composition and the lack of an adequate area for disposal. Vitreous materials were synthesized from bottom ash to be employed as a by-product. The bottom ash was subjected to an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis to evaluate the oxide composition present in the material. To study the effect of bottom ash in the attainment of glass, a simplex lattice design for experiments with blends was employed. The elements considered in the design were: bottom ash; sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) and calcium oxide (CaO), both used as melting agents; magnesium oxide (MgO), which was used as a stabilizer for the vitreous network. For the characterization of the glasses, X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) were carried out. Ten different formulations were tested. The results indicated that two out of the ten formulations formed a crystalline phase, which is undesirable for a vitreous material. In the statistical analyses, the Pareto Diagram and the response surface showed that the glass transition and softening temperatures were strongly influenced by the level of calcium oxide and magnesium oxide, as well as that of bottom ash, resulting in an increase in the softening and glass transition temperatures.

[en] The drilling fluid is a complex colloidal mixture of water, bentonite clays, chemical additives and trace amounts of oil from the sludge of hydrocarbon bearing zones. Drilling fluids,including various mixtures, known as drill cuttings, perform an important role in drilling operations in the exploration and production of oil and gas. A relatively large amount of solid waste stream from drilling operations in the exploration and production of oil and gas is generated depending on the size of the well and the types of drilling mud used in the drilling process. The environmental impact of drilling waste can be devastating and dangerous to water and land receptors. All rocks have some radiation in them. Rocks in and around some oil and gas reservoirs may contain natural radioactivity. Drilling through these rocks or carrying them to the surface can lead to the formation of waste containing radioactivity. The ultimate sources of most of the radioactivity are from daughter products of uranium (²³⁸U, ²³⁵U) and thorium (²³²Th) that are naturally present in subsurface formations from which oil and gas are produced. Therefore, the providing of radio ecological monitoring for estimation of radioactivity and radiation risks has a scientific and practical importance.

[en] Decision analysis was used to rank alternative sites for a new Consolidated Waste Capability (CWC) to replace current hazardous solid waste operations (hazardous/chemical, mixed lowlevel, transuranic, and low-level waste) at Los Alamos National Laboratory's TA-54 Area G. An original list of 21 site alternatives was pre-screened to ten sites that were assessed using the analytical hierarchy process with five top-level criteria and fifteen sub-criteria. Three passes of the analysis were required to assess different site scenarios: 1) a fully consolidated CWC with both transfer/storage and LL W disposal in one location (45 acre minimum), 2) CWC transfer/storage only (12 acre minimum), and 3) LLW disposal only (33 acre minimum). The top site choice for all three options is TA-63/52/46; the second choice is TA-18/36. TA-54 East, Zone 4 also deserves consideration as a LLW disposal site.

[en] The article deals with the problems of waste management methods, which do not cope with the task of ecological utilization of solid waste. Based on the analysis of literature data, the following is presented: the morphological composition of solid waste, the block diagram of a laboratory waste gasification plant. And also a set of equipment characteristics for the modernization of a laboratory installation of plasma gasification. (paper)

[en] In France, radioactive waste that contains tritium, the radioactive isotope of hydrogen, is produced by the CEA as part of its research and development activities, especially for military applications. There is currently no definitive disposal solution for this waste, so it is processed and packaged and then kept in interim storage at Valduc and Marcoule. Furthermore, industrial companies and medical and pharmaceutical research laboratories use tritium - or have done so in the past - for a number of applications which have led to the production of tritiated waste, a small amount of which is still awaiting a disposal solution. Lastly, beginning in the 2020 years, the ITER power plant will also generate tritiated waste and become the largest source of its production. 6 categories of tritiated waste have been defined. Only the very lowest concentrations of tritiated waste can be dealt with by the processing and disposal solutions currently available. This means CENTRACO, where very low-level tritiated waste can be incinerated or melted, and ANDRA repositories, where the acceptance criteria are very strict, making it very uncommon for them to be used for tritiated waste. This situation is a result of the characteristics of tritium and the history of the Aube repository. The proposed solution is based on a temporary storage (50 years) of tritiated waste near the production zone that will allow a natural diminution of the radioactivity and then the packages will be moved to future storing centers of ANDRA that will be built to receive tritiated wastes

[en] This report provides the final hazard categorization for the remediation of six 300-FF-2 Operable Unit Burial Grounds, the 618-1, 618-2, 618-3, 618-7, 618-8, and 618-13 sites.

[en] Recycling of packaging wastes may be compatible with incineration within integrated waste management systems. To study this, a mathematical model is presented to calculate the fraction composition of residual municipal solid waste (MSW) only as a function of the MSW fraction composition at source and recycling fractions of the different waste materials. The application of the model to the Lisbon region yielded results showing that the residual waste fraction composition depends both on the packaging wastes fraction at source and on the ratio between that fraction and the fraction of the same material, packaging and non-packaging, at source. This behaviour determines the variation of the residual waste LHV. For 100% of paper packaging recycling, LHV reduces 4.2% whereas this reduction is of 14.4% for 100% of packaging plastics recycling. For 100% of food waste recovery, LHV increases 36.8% due to the moisture fraction reduction of the residual waste. Additionally the results evidence that the negative impact of recycling paper and plastic packaging on the LHV may be compensated by recycling food waste and glass and metal packaging. This makes packaging materials recycling and food waste recovery compatible strategies with incineration within integrated waste management systems

No abstract available