ML20062A595
| ML20062A595 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 07/31/1982 |
| From: | Adams J, Barletta R, Dougherty D BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY |
| To: | Thomas Johnston NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL SAFETY & SAFEGUARDS (NMSS) |
| References | |
| BNL-NUREG-31390, NUDOCS 8208040050 | |
| Download: ML20062A595 (5) | |
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BNL-NUREG-31390 THE WASTE PROPERTIES OF A STRIPPABLE C0ATING USED FOR THE TMI-2 REACTOR BUILDING DECONTAMINATION
- D. R. Dougherty, J. W. Adams, and R. E. Barletta Division of Nuclear Waste Management Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973
- Work carried out under the auspices of the Nuclea[' Regulatory Commission.
1 THE WASTE PROPERTIES OF A STRIPPABLE C0ATING USED FOR THE TMI-2 OECONTAMINATION.*
D. R. Dougherty, J. W. Adams, and R. E. Barletta, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973.
Strippable coating material considered for use in the TMI-2 reactor building decon-tamination has been tested for Sr, Cs, and Co leachability, for radiation stability, It was also immersion tested in wator, a and for resistance to biodegradation.
water solution saturated with toluene and xylene, toluene, xylene, and liquid scin-tillation counting (LSC) cocktail.
Leach testing, performed using a modified IAEA procedure, resulted in all of the Cs and Co activity and most of the Sr activity be-Immersion resulted in swelling of ing released from the coating in just a few days. Gamma irradiation of the coating did not the coating in all of the liquids tested.
8 rad, produce any apparent physical changes in the coating to a dose of 1 x 10 radiolytic gas generation of H, CO, and CO2 was observed.
Biodegrada-2
- however, tion testing was performed in soil samples from the Barnwell, South Carolina, and low-level waste disposal sites.
Progress of the biodegrada-Hanford, Washington, tions was monitored using the CO2 produced from microbial respiration.
Biodegra-readily in both soils although somewhat faster in dation of the coating occurs These test results indicate that strippable coating radwaste of it-Hanford soil.
self will not meet the requirements for stabilized Class B waste outlined in 10 CFR 61 (proposed) and the NRC Draft Branch Technical Position on Waste Form.
Work carried out under the auspices of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
D. R. Dougherty Department of Nuclear Energy Brookhav5n" National Laboratory Building 830 Upton, NY 11973 FTS 666-3522 (516) 282-3522
1 THE WASTE PROPERTIES OF A STRIPPABLE C0ATING USED FOR THE TMI-2 REACTOR BUILDING DECONTAMINATION
- D. R. Dougherty, J. W. Adams, and R. E. Barletta Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 Strippable coatings are being considered for use in the decontamination of the TMI-2 reactor building. The liquid coating is normally applied by air-less spraying, or by pouring and spreading with a squeegee.
After drying, i t is stripped off as a rubber-like sheet carrying away loose particles and some physically bound contamination.
One advantage of strippable coatings is that the solid waste produced is generally easier to deal with than the liquid so-lution that would result fran decontanination alternatives.
Since the waste strippable coating material contains chelating agents and may be Class B waste under the current draft of 10 CFR 61, BNL has conducted tests on this material as part of a technical assistance program for the NRC.
The Draft Branch Technical Position on Waste Form issued by the NRC requires that the waste form for Class B stable waste meet stability requirenents which include radiation stability, resistance to biodegradation, resistance to im-mersion in water (including leach testing), and resistance to thermal degrada-tion.
Tests for leachability, resistance to biodegradation, radiation stabil-ity, and the ef fects of immersion were conducted on material purchased from imperial Professional Coatings, Inc., and actual contaminated coating supplied by Met Ed/GPU fron the Tiil-2 reactor building gross decontanination testing.
Radiation stability testing to a total Co-60 gamma dose of 1 x 108 rad on uncontaminated coating produced no apparent physical changes.
In sealed irradiation tubes, there was a pressure increase due to H, CO, and C02 2
production.
l Immersion testing was performed in five liquids: water, a water solution l
saturated with toluene and xylene, toluene, xylene, and liquid scintillation counting (LSC) cocktail.
Immersion in all of these liquids produced swelling and weight gain of the coating. Water produced the least swelling and weight gain, approximately 20%, while toluene, xylene, and the water solution regis-tered increases of 40 to 80%.
The LSC cocktail had a much larger ef fect, reg-istering a weight gain of over 700%.
The weight gain observed in water and the water solution immersions were unusual in that they reached a maximum and then declined.
After thirty-four days of immersion, the samples were air dryed at roon temperature and the weight change monitored.
This resulted in a net wei,gh.t loss of 15-20% from the weight before immersion for all of the specimens except those immersed in LSC cocktail.
After air drying, these specimens still exhibited a net weight gain of 400%.
- Work carried out under the auspices of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
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Leach testing was perfonned for Cs, Co, and Sr using a modified IAEA pro-cedure. These nuclides leached readily from the coating with all of the Cs and Co and over half of the Sr leaching within two weeks.
Biodegradation testing was monitored by measuring the C02 produced from microbe (rqspiration using the procedure and apparatus described by Bartha and Prame r. 13 The blodegradation testing was done in soil samples from the Barnwell, South Carolina, and Hanford, Washington, low-level waste disposal sites. The procedure requires collecting CO2 from biodegradation occurring in a vessel in a standard KOH solution. The KOH solution is contained in a separate compartment.
The KOH not neutralized by CO2 uptake is back ti-trated with standard hcl, allowing the CO2 produced to be calculated. The difference in CO2 produced in a flask containing a specimen of the strippa-ble coating in soil and a flask with soil alone, provides a quantitative mea-sure of sample biodegradation.
Monitoring CO2 provides a lower limit to the actugl amount of biode-gradation since part (5-404, depending on conditionst23) is utilized for microbe growth or excreted in another chemical fonn.
Results to date show that biodegradation is occurring faster in Hanford soil than in Barnwell svil.
Specifically, in 50 days more than 1*. of the total carbon content of the coating has been evolved as C02 in the Hanford soil while only about half of this amount has come from the Barnwell samples.
In conclusion, the strippable coating material swells upon immersion in water and organic liquids, rapidly leaches its radionuclide inventory and bio-degrades readily in soil. At high radiation doses, gas generation from the coating is significant. To dispose of contaminated strippable coating as Class B stable waste would require that it be incorporated in a matrix or con-tainer that enables the waste to meet the stability requirements.
References 1.
R. Bartha and D. Parmer, Soil Science, 100, 68-70 (1965).
2.
P. A. Gilbert, " Biodegradation Tests: Use and Value," pp. 35-45 in Biotransformations and__ the Fate of Chemicals in an Aquatic Environment Procedures Workshop, 1980.
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