Wet Chemical Oxidation of Organic Waste Using Nitric-Phosphoric Acid Technology

Experimental progress has been made in a wide range of areas which support the continued development of the nitric-phosphoric acid oxidation process for combustible, solid organic wastes. An improved understanding of the overall process operation has been obtained, acid recovery and recycle systems have been studied, safety issues have been addressed, two potential final waste forms have been tested, preliminary mass flow diagrams have been prepared, and process flowsheets have been developed. The flowsheet developed is essentially a closed-loop system which addresses all of the internally generated waste streams. The combined activities aim to provide the basis for building and testing a 250-400 liter pilot-scale unit. Variations of the process now must be evaluated in order to address the needs of the primary customer, SRS Solid Waste Management. The customer is interested in treating job control waste contaminated with Pu-238 for shipment to WIPP. As a result, variations for feed preparation, acid recycle, and final form manufacturing must be considered to provide for simpler processing to accommodate operations in high radiation and contamination environments. The purpose of this program is to demonstrate a nitric-phosphoric acid destruction technology which can treat a heterogeneous waste by oxidizing the solid and liquid organic compounds while decontaminating noncombustible items