Treatment of waste TBP/n-dodecane with steam reforming system

Sone, Tomoyuki ; Nonaka, Kazuharu; Sasaki, Toshiki ; Yamaguchi, Hiromi 

Steam reforming method consists of the gasification process (GP) in which organics are vaporized and decomposed with superheated steam and the oxidation process in which vaporized organics are decomposed with heated air. Experimental study in which waste TBP/n-dodecane (WTBP) containing uranium was used was conducted with the steam reforming system (SRS) to examine the distribution ratio of uranium in the system, the feasibility of treatment of WTBP and the effect of treatment with SRS on the volume reduction of WTBP. The results of these studies are as follows: (1) Most of uranium compounds in WTBP are separated from organics in GP. (2) Only the solid waste remained in GP is the radioactive secondary waste from the treatment of WTBP with SRS. (3) The maintenance operation of the equipments installed downstream of GP become easy to perform. (4) The volume of secondary solid wastes is very small because more than 99% of the WTBP were evaporated in GP. (5) It was estimated that the effect of treatment with SRS on the volume reduction of WTBP is 30 times more than that of pyrolysis method. These results show that SRS can achieve high volume reduction of WTBP.