Treatment technology development of uranium contaminated spent TBP/n-dodecane solvent by steam reforming

Nakagawa, Akinori ; Sone, Tomoyuki ; Sasaki, Toshiki ; Nakazawa, Osamu ; Tashiro, Kiyoshi

Steam reforming treatment system was developed for volume reduction of Tri-n-butyl phosphate contaminated with uranium, which is difficult to treat with incineration, due to generation of corrosive compounds, a large amount of secondary waste, etc. This system consists of a steam reforming process in which organic waste is decomposed/gasified in steam atmosphere and a submerged combustion process in which vaporized waste is burned in water and has good features such as high volume reduction rate of waste, low secondary waste generation rate, etc. Results obtained this study were as follows: Volume reduction rate of waste was 99.6%. Uranium entrainment to off-gas was suppressed and the concentration of uranium in waste water was under 0.037mg/L. The concentration of CO and NOx in the off-gas were less than 100ppm and 250ppm respectively. Plugging and corrosion control technologies were developed and it was confirmed that the waste treatment system can run for long periods.