Solidification is a process of incorporating radioactive wastes into a solid insoluble matrix, which is the main barrier preventing radionuclides from escaping into the environment. Glass, ceramics, bitumen, cement (concrete), polymers, rubber, and so on can be used as the matrix.For medium-level wastes bitumenization and cementing processes are most widely used. In addition, for high-level wastes (10 -3 to i Ci/liter) a bitumen matrix is preferable because it is most stable with respect to leaching of radionuclides by ground waters. Up to 40-50 mass % of radioactive dry residue can be incorporated into a bitumen matrix and only 15-30% can be incorporated into a cement matrix. Above these percentages the stability of the matrix with respect to leaching drops sharply. Since a cement matrix, in contrast to a bitumen matrix, is noncombustible, in the last few years a great deal of attention has been devoted to cementing.The All of these setups are suitable for reprocessing bottoms, and the RB and KB bitumenizers can also be used to reprocess hydroxide, perlite, and ion-exchange resin sludges. Some models of all three types of bitumenizers have been checked on simulated wastes on stands at the SRICMM.A great deal of experience has been accumulated in operating setups with the RB and TB bitumenizers on real wastes. Setups with the RB-1000 bitumenizer with a capacity of 400 liters/h have been operating at the Leningrad nuclear power plants since 1984 (first setup) and since 1985 (second setup) and at the Ignalin nuclear power plant (Lithuania) since 1987. The setup with the RB-800 bitumenizer with a capacity of up to 250 liters/h has been operating since 1989 at the Kalinin nuclear power plant. On these setups the bitumen mixture is pumped into concrete compartments of the burial site, where it congeals. Setups with the RB-800 bitumenizers have been assembled at the Balakov, Roven, and Southern-Ukraine nuclear power plants. In these setups the bitumen mixture is packaged into 200-liter metal barrels. The TB-16 apparatus with a periodic-action bitumenizer with a capacity of 240 liters/h has been operating since 1978 at the Leningrad Special Industrial Group "Radon" (Sosnovyi Bor), where the burial site for the bitumen mixture is filled by pouring. The TB-and KB-type periodic-action bitumenizers with a complex of auxiliary equipment have been developed for a radiochemical plant. Setups with KB bitumenizers with a capacity of 40 liters/h have been produced for nuclear heat-generating plants.A diagram of a setup with a RB-800 bitumenizer is displayed in Fig. t. The bitumenizer 5 consists of a thin-film rotor evaporator with hinged paddles. The cubic residue and the bitumen are fed in a definite ratio by the pumps 1 and 4 with a regulatable flow rate from the tanks 2 and 3 into the bitumenizer where evaporation of the wastes and mixing with bitumen occur in a thin film. The bitumen mixture is fed by a double-auger Open-Type Joint-Stock Company "Sverdlovsk Scientific-Research Institute of Chemical Machinery Manufacture."

621.039.736 During the operation of a nuclear power plant, large volumes of medium-level radioactive liquid wastes are formed. These radionuclides must be incorporated into an insoluble matrix prior to final burial. The wastes consist of solutions containing sodium salts (predominantly nitrates and borates), different impurities, and organic compounds. At the present time, liquid wastes from nuclear power plants are bitumenized and cemented.An effective method of solidification is fixing wastes into a glass-like matrix which is highly stable chemically and mechanically strong. Solidification in borosilicate glass gives 0.2-0.3 m 3 of solid material per 1 m 3 of liquid; this is 3.6 times smaller than in the case of solidification of a corresponding volume in bitumen and 10 times smaller than solidification in concrete. The leach rate of radionuclides decreases by 100 and 10,000 times, respectively. Moreover, compared with bitumenization, this method does not present a fire hazard during reprocessing, transport, and storage of the wastes.Successful long-term operation of the vitrification apparatus in the Industrial Association "Mayak" in the case of reprocessing of high-level wastes made it possible to recommend vitrification and the basic technical solutions for the construction of the equipment and for medium-level wastes from nuclear power plants.The vitrification apparatus developed at the Joint-Stock Company "Sverdlovsk Scientific-Research Institute of Chemical Machinery" for a nuclear power plant (Fig. I) includes a flow-through pipe-inside-pipe type evaporator, flux dispensing units, gas purification unit, a packaging unit, and an electric furnace. The setup is equipped with water and electricity supply systems and a system for automating and monitoring the technological process. The flux dispensing unit consists of a bunker for storing and dispensing the glass-forming components. The gas-purification unit contains a bubble-tank condenser, a condensate collector, an absorption column, and rough and t-me purification filters. The packaging unit includes a circular conveyor with an electric drive extended outside the radiation shielding, containers for filling with the glass mass, devices for monitoring the glass mass flowing into the container from the furnace, and an off-loading system for transporting the glass-filled containers to the storage location.The electric furnace (Fig. 2) consists of a ceramic bath placed inside a water-cooled metal case. To prevent the calcinated material, which has not been completely melted, from entering the pouring apparatus, the bath is separated by a water-cooled barrier with a submerged channel into two zones --founding and pouring. Founding is performed by means of heat released during the passage of electric current through the melted glass mass. Electricity is supplied to the melt from vertically positioned bottom metal electrodes, secured into thewater-cooled current leads.The electrical furnace operates in a continuous mode: Electricity continues to flow to the e...

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