Reduction of contaminated concrete waste by recycling aggregate with the aid of pulsed power discharge

Arifi, E.*; Ishimatsu, Koichi*; Iizasa, Shinya*; Namihira, Takao*; Sakamoto, Hiroyuki*; Tachi, Yukio  ; Kato, Hiroyasu*; Shigeishi, Mitsuhiro*

The Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plant accident has resulted in a large amount of radioactively contaminated concrete. The possible application of the pulsed power discharge to reduce the amount of contaminated concrete as radioactive waste was investigated. The contaminated concrete was decontaminated by separating contaminated matrix from uncontaminated coarse aggregate under pulsed power discharge process. In this study, a stable Cs isotope was used to simulate radioactively contaminated concrete. As a result, while the volume of reclaimed aggregate from contaminated concrete could be reproduced was up to 60%, nevertheless Cs detected in the reclaimed aggregate was only approximately 3%. Thus most of the Cs were dissolved in water during the discharge process. It is expected that the pulsed power could reduce the contaminated concrete waste by reusing aggregate. Further investigations are requested to test the applicability of this method under the realistic conditions close to the actual waste.