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Process design and feasibility study for incineration under pressure, condensation and effluent treatment of radioactive waste

Objective

The main objective of this research is the evaluation of the technical and economical feasibility as well as the safety implications of the combustion of radioactive organic wastes by means of oxygen under pressure, using a new type of incinerator relying on the recent technical developments achieved within the MESMA (Autonomous Energy Module) project. The study will have to demonstrate that this new type of incinerator enables a quantitative destruction of organic wastes while only giving rise to the release of inactive-gases (in terms of radioactivity and chemical toxicity). The work is mainly focused on the study of the adaptation of a closed loop for combustion under pressure operating at 60 bar - including the setting-up of a suitable off-gas treatment - to incineration of radioactive spent ion-exchange resins according to French formulations.
The main objective of this research activity is the evaluation of the technical feasibility as well as the economic and safety implications of the combustion of a range of organic containing radioactive wastes by means of oxygen under pressure using a new type of incinerator relying on the recent technical developments achieved within the MESMA (Autonomous Underwater Energy Module) project. In particular, the study will have to demonstrate that this new type of incinerator enables a quantitative destruction of organic wastes while giving rise to the release of inactive gases only (in terms of radioactivity and chemical toxicity).

Data on possible wastes that can be incinerated has been collected and a review of the types of waste that could be burnt in order to reduce their volume carried out.For the study, 4 wastes have been selected. They are:
spent solvent, mainly composed of tributylphosphate;
a cationic resin, type DUOLITE C20;
an anionic resin, type DUOLITE A101D;
decontamination liquors.
Data from radioactive waste sludge are available; the aim is to compare the new process with the wet oxidation process. Some flow sheets are available, under several assumptions on incineration, for the spent tributylphosphate.
Because of the pressure in the process, solid wastes are not selected.
Work programme:

BERTIN has to adapt the process, developed for the MESMA project, to the case of waste incineration. The CEA will make a review of the possible waste to be processed, and will perform some laboratory trials in order to check the behaviour of waste samples under conditions of incineration. INITEC will participate in the design of the bench test installation and incineration trials.

The work programme comprises five distinct steps:

- Identification of radioactive waste taking into account the incineration characteristics and the interest in removing organic elements from the waste
- Drawing-up of process flow-sheet
- Treatment and conditioning of secondary waste
- Bench-scale tests
- Technico-economical evaluation for an incineration plant with a 50 to 100 kg/hour throughput

Call for proposal

Data not available

Coordinator

Bertin et Cie S.A.
EU contribution
No data
Address
Avenue du 1er Mai Zone Industrielle
40220 Tarnos
France

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Total cost
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Participants (2)