Mixing Waste + Thermal Treatment: A Solution to the Problematic Waste Challenge? - 18366
Credible solutions exist for the management, treatment and disposal of all categories of Problematic Low Level Waste (PLLW); however the wastes are often ill defined and the costs associated tend to be disproportionately high; twenty times greater than that associated with LLW. The challenge posed to the nuclear industry is not one of technology but of economics and characterization. There are many PLLW categories, but the associated waste volumes are small (often < 100 m{sup 3}/category) which represents a poor value proposition to develop and deploy specialist technology for each. To meet the industry challenge, and to balance economics with safety and quality, a technology is required that is adaptable enough to process a large fraction of PLLW categories, present a favorable level of characterization and process in sufficient volumes to reduce cost. One approach is waste mixing which is becoming an accepted technique in waste management; however this does not address issues that make wastes problematic as it does not typically change the physico-chemical characteristics of the waste. Techniques are being developed for the conditioning of PLLW waste categories. Presently these are not commercially ready (low Technology Readiness Level, TRL) or have not met the economic challenge posed. GeoMelt is a thermal treatment technology with a track record over 30 years and capable of providing a viable solution. It has a demonstrated capability to co-process mixed wastes and is able to process wastes that fall into the PLLW category. This paper discusses how GeoMelt can be used to co-process waste economically and provides a feasible characterization strategy to present a viable approach to the conditioning and co-disposal of problematic wastes in the UK. (authors)