DETERMINATION OF DECONTAMINATION FACTORS OF RADIOACTIVE LIQUID WASTE STREAMS USING NEUTRON-ACTIVATION ANALYSIS

Argonne National Laboratory is currently developing evaporator technol ogy to concentrate radioactive waste streams such as those generated b y the TRUEX process. Concentrating radioactive waste streams and thus minimizing the volume of waste generated can significantly reduce disp osal costs. Equipment is needed to concentrate the radioactive waste s treams and to recycle the decontaminated condensates. One technology t hat shows a great deal of potential for this application is an evapora tor being developed by LICON, Inc. To effectively reduce the volume of waste, the evaporator must achieve high decontamination factors so th at the distillate is sufficiently free of radioactive material. An exp erimental process was developed, using a non-radioactive tracer and ne utron activation analysis (NAA), to determine decontamination factors of the LICON evaporator.