Treatment of low level radioactive liquid waste containing appreciable concentration of TBP degraded products

Abstract The acidic and alkaline low level radioactive liquid waste (LLW) generated during the concentration of high level radioactive liquid waste (HLW) prior to vitrification and ion exchange treatment of intermediate level radioactive liquid waste (ILW), respectively are decontaminated by chemical co-precipitation before discharge to the environment. LLW stream generated from the ion exchange treatment of ILW contained high concentrations of carbonates, tributyl phosphate (TBP) degraded products and problematic radio nuclides like 106 Ru and 99 Tc. Presence of TBP degraded products was interfering with the co-precipitation process. In view of this a modified chemical treatment scheme was formulated for the treatment of this waste stream. By mixing the acidic LLW and alkaline LLW, the carbonates in the alkaline LLW were destroyed and the TBP degraded products got separated as a layer at the top of the vessel. By making use of the modified co-precipitation process the effluent stream (1–2 μCi/L) became dischargeable to the environment after appropriate dilution. Based on the lab scale studies about 250 m 3 of LLW was treated in the plant. The higher activity of the TBP degraded products separated was due to short lived 90 Y isotope. The cement waste product prepared using the TBP degraded product was having good chemical durability and compressive strength.