Waste treatment improvements

Clean Air Act and its amendments ia 1970, 1977, and 1990 1967 Air Quahty Standards and National Air Pollution Acts and 1970 National Environmental PoHcy Act) (2) better waste disposal practices (1965 SoHd Waste Disposal Act 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) (see Wastes, industrial Waste treatment, hazardous wastes) (i) reduced noise levels (1972 Noise Control Act) (4) improved control of the manufacture and use of toxic materials (1976 Toxic Substances Control Act) and (5) assignment of responsibiUty to manufacturers for product safety (1972 Consumer Product Safety Act) (15,16). 

An overview is given of plutonium process chemistry used at the U. S. Department of Energy Hanford, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Rocky Flats, and Savannah River sites, with particular emphasis on solution chemistry involved in recovery, purification, and waste treatment operations. By extrapolating from the present system of processes, this paper also attempts to chart the future direction of plutonium process development and operation. Areas where a better understanding of basic plutonium chemistry will contribute to development of improved processing are indicated. 

An overview is presented of plutonium process chemistry at Rocky Flats and of research in progress to improve plutonium processing operations or to develop new processes. Both pyrochemical and aqueous methods are used to process plutonium metal scrap, oxide, and other residues. The pyrochemical processes currently in production include electrorefining, fluorination, hydriding, molten salt extraction, calcination, and reduction operations. Aqueous processing and waste treatment methods involve nitric acid dissolution, ion exchange, solvent extraction, and precipitation techniques. 

Water use is identical in the operation scale and in the literature procedure. If the yield was increased in the hterature protocol simply by applying an extraction procedure, which is not intended in the current recipe, the amount of water needed (always related to one kilogram of product) would be less than in the operational process. Therefore, the currently generated sewage quantity in operation scale appears to be higher than necessary. Since the reduction of waste-treatment costs and the improvement of the environmental performance are... 

Soil Clay is the primary construction material for settling basins and waste treatment evaporation ponds. Since there is no single type of clay even within a given geographic area, the shrinkage, porosity absorption characteristics, and chemical resistance must be checked for each application. Geotextiles can be incorporated into basin and pond clay construction to improve the performance of the structure. 

The recent and accelerating emphasis on water pollution control has necessitated the rapid development of improved biological waste treatment systems to aid in cost and energy savings. The use of... 

They permit future retrieval of wastes for improved treatment when such a process may be developed, and, inasmuch as the vault is fully sealed, the underground geology need only be strong, stable, and free of any tectonic history. 

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