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DOE nuclear cleanup costs, schedule delays continue to rise, GAO says
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management faces significant cost increases, schedule delays, and data management issues in completing nuclear waste cleanup projects, according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
E. L. Childs, J. L. Long
Nuclear Technology | Volume 54 | Number 2 | August 1981 | Pages 208-214
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT81-A32736
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An electrolytic plutonium decontamination process for stainless steel was developed for use as the final step in a proposed radioactive waste handling and decontamination facility to be constructed at the Rockwell International Rocky Flats plutonium handling facility. The process utilizes a basic (pH > 7) electrolyte which has been patented (U.S. Patent 4 193 853). Filtration can be used to separate most radioactive contaminants and dissolved metal from the electrolyte. A test plan was executed comparing the basic electrolyte with phosphoric acid and nitric acid electrolytes. Laboratory-scale testing was done with stainless steel exposed to plutonium and americium. The alpha activity was reduced to <0.14 dis/min-cm-2. The amount of wet sludge generated with the basic electrolyte was ∼170 mg/cm2 of surface decontaminated.