CHARACTERIZATION OF LOW-LEVEL MIXED WASTE SLUDGES - IDENTIFYING AND CONTROLLING SOURCES OF VARIABILITY

Over the course of several years, we have examined the viability of tr eating low-level mixed wastes from several US Department of Energy (DO E) sites by vitrification. In particular, extensive studies have been performed on actual low-level mixed wastes from the Fernald site in Oh io. We have shown that it is possible to produce durable glasses (pass the US EPA TCLP test and perform comparably to high-level waste glass es on the PCT test) with waste loadings of 80-98%. The results of thes e vitrification studies have been used to up-scale from laboratory sca le melters to a demonstration-scale melter operating at the Fernald si te with a nominal glass production rate of 300 kg/day. This paper focu ses on the difficulties that we have encountered in characterizing and working with actual waste sludges and the solutions that we have deve loped.