Sorbent Testing for Solidification of Organic Plutonium/Uranium Extraction Waste

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is evaluating various sorbents to solidify the organic fraction of plutonium/uranium extraction (PUREX) process waste at the Savannah River Site (SRS). The purpose of the solidification is to provide a cost-effective alternative to incineration of the waste. Incineration at the Consolidated Incinerator Facility (CIF) at SRS is currently identified as the treatment technology for PUREX waste. However, the CIF is not in operation at this time; therefore, SRS is interested in pursuing alternatives to incineration for treatment of this waste. The DOE Western Environmental Technology Office (WETO) in Butte, MT, was designated as the facility for conducting the sorbent testing and evaluation for organic PUREX waste surrogate. In concert with the Transuranic Waste Accelerated Shipment program, MSE Technology Applications, Inc. (MSE) also of Butte, MT, tested and evaluated sorbents with the capability of solidifying organic PUREX waste. A surrogate organic PUREX waste recipe was used, and sorbents were tested and evaluated. This paper presents experimental results evaluating four sorbent materials: Imbiber Beads IMB230301-R^™, Nochar A610 Petrobond^™, Petroset II^™, and Petroset II Granular^™ (Petroset II-G^™). Previous work at SRS indicated that these products could solidify organic PUREX waste on a bench scale. Evaluation criteria included sorbent handling, sorbent capacity, sorption rate, sorbent composition, sorbent dust production potential, final wasteform physical properties, volumetric expansion, mixing requirements, and sorbent cost.