Contaminated soil restoration method
First Claim
1. A method of treating waste material contaminated with soluble radioactive species comprising the steps:
- (1) providing waste material containing soluble radioactive species and separating that portion of the waste material found to be contaminated, to provide contaminated waste material;
(2) crushing the contaminated waste material so that it has a particle size below 420 micrometers, determining the contaminant, the contaminated waste material density, and identifying the particle size range of the most severely contaminated fraction of the contaminated waste material by separation into a plurality of particle size fractions and scanning each fraction for radioactivity or chemically analyzing each fraction;
(3) passing the contaminated waste material, having a known density, into a fluidized bed apparatus where an aqueous leach solution, having a chemical composition effective to leach soluble contaminants present in the contaminated waste material, contacts the contaminated waste material at an upward velocity effective to entrain and remove, at the top of the apparatus, particles including the particle size range that is determined to contain the most severely contaminated fraction of the contaminated waste material, to provide a severely contaminated, top effluent slurry containing solubilized, severely contaminated species, and a bottom effluent slurry containing disposable, cleaned waste where each slurry contains the aqueous leach solution;
(4) removing the leach solution from the severely contaminated effluent slurry, to provide aqueous leach solution containing solubilized, severely contaminated species, and cleaned solids waste; and
(5) passing the aqueous leach solution from step (4) through an ion removal apparatus effective to remove the solubilized, severely contaminated species from the aqueous leach solution, to provide cleaned, aqueous leach solution.
14 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Waste material containing hazardous or radio-active species is treated by: separating a portion of the waste material and identifying the particle size range of the severely contaminated fraction by use of a sieving apparatus (6) and a contamination detection apparatus (8); passing the waste material (15) near a contamination detection apparatus (12) to identify the waste material that is contaminated and segregate that material by a diverter (17) to provide contaminated portion (19); passing the contaminated portion (19) into a fluidized bed apparatus (16) where an aqueous leaching solution (21), effective to leach soluble, contamination species, contacts the contaminated material at an upward velocity effective to remove the particle size range that is determined to contain the severely contaminated fraction of the waste material, to provide a severely contaminated effluent slurry (24); and removing the leach solution from the slurry in a dewatering apparatus (26) to provide a solution (27) containing solubilized, severely contaminated species.
32 Citations
9 Claims
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1. A method of treating waste material contaminated with soluble radioactive species comprising the steps:
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(1) providing waste material containing soluble radioactive species and separating that portion of the waste material found to be contaminated, to provide contaminated waste material; (2) crushing the contaminated waste material so that it has a particle size below 420 micrometers, determining the contaminant, the contaminated waste material density, and identifying the particle size range of the most severely contaminated fraction of the contaminated waste material by separation into a plurality of particle size fractions and scanning each fraction for radioactivity or chemically analyzing each fraction; (3) passing the contaminated waste material, having a known density, into a fluidized bed apparatus where an aqueous leach solution, having a chemical composition effective to leach soluble contaminants present in the contaminated waste material, contacts the contaminated waste material at an upward velocity effective to entrain and remove, at the top of the apparatus, particles including the particle size range that is determined to contain the most severely contaminated fraction of the contaminated waste material, to provide a severely contaminated, top effluent slurry containing solubilized, severely contaminated species, and a bottom effluent slurry containing disposable, cleaned waste where each slurry contains the aqueous leach solution; (4) removing the leach solution from the severely contaminated effluent slurry, to provide aqueous leach solution containing solubilized, severely contaminated species, and cleaned solids waste; and (5) passing the aqueous leach solution from step (4) through an ion removal apparatus effective to remove the solubilized, severely contaminated species from the aqueous leach solution, to provide cleaned, aqueous leach solution. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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Specification